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| Query: tern | Result: 47th of 569 | |
Image of Aleutian Tern, Sterna aleutica, photo by R. Gill
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File Size: 15180 Bytes
Upload Date: 2008:04:02 14:45:22
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Image of Aleutian Tern, Sterna aleutica, photo by R. Gill
Alaska Science Center - Avian Influenza Research
AVIAN INFLUENZA: Information and On-going Research at the USGS Alaska Science Center
TAXON: Aleutian Tern,
Sterna aleutica
Justification:
Aleutian terns are a high priority species because virtually all birds breeding in Alaska migrate to Australasia via the East Asia Flyway. They winter along the coast and roost on beaches and estuaries along the western Pacific Ocean.
Background:
The Aleutian tern breeds only in Alaska and eastern Siberia, nesting coastally in dispersed colonies (North 1997). Their breeding range extends from southeast Alaska to the western Aleutian Islands and as for north as the Chukchi Sea. In Russia they breed in the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula. In winter all breeding birds appear to move south west along the Pacific coast of Asia to Japan and the Indonesian islands and as far as Java, Bali, and Sulawesi (Harrison 1983, Armstrong 1995, Hill and Bishop 1999, ASIS 2006). Little banding of this species has been done and therefore knowledge of winter distributions has been gathered from observations of birds. About 9,500 birds nest in Alaska, the largest colony of about 1,700 birds nest at Yakutat in the Gulf of Alaska (USFWS 2006).
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