First sightings of Levant Little Tern in Bahrain
The Tern that fooled all of us!
In October 2000, during the first Arabian Ornithological Congress which took place in Bahrain we were brought to Bahrain’s important Ramsar Site: the Islands and shallow sea of Hawar now under threat of destruction , Upon arrival I saw tiny dark terns fishing which reminded me of very small Bridled Terns Sterna anaethetes, I had no idea what they were, there was not enough time to study them.
On 23rd October 2000 while on the island of Hawar I picked up a mummified carcass of such dark little tern which I gave to the Rotterdam Nat His,Mus. and forgot all about it!.
Recently Dr. Erwin Kompanje, curator of the museum, asked me to tell more about the tern, more than twenty three years after I had found the specimen!
It turned out to be an immature Little Tern, Mohamed Habib and I had named Malaka’s Little Tern Sterna albifrons habibi in 2016, later renamed Levant Little Tern Sterna albifrons levantinus, the name given by Yosef Kiat and his team who had been studying these terns from 2010 onwards in Israel.
In Sandgrouse 38 (2016) 118-123 Mohamed Habib reports in detail on his survey of Little Tern Sternula albifrons/ colonies including behavioural aspects at Port Said, Egypt. His report has been illustrated with a set of very interesting photographs of the species breeding behaviour and adaptation to the harsh climate such as cooling chicks by covering them with water by means of soaked belly feathers. From the pictures it appeared that the Little Terns of Port Said had an unusually dark plumage compared to the little Terns from Europe. As soon as I saw his pictures I realized I had seen the dark terns before. In October 2000 in Bahrain.
At my request Mohamed Habib visited the colonies near Port Said again in order to trap, measure and photograph breeding Little Terns as well as collecting DNA samples.
His excellent work is presented here:
the first picture shows a dark tern in fresh plumage but other photographs show a much paler tern due to the effect of bleaching by the sun, two types of tern in one, a recipy for confusion, here we see photo’s of the tern in very dark fresh plumage and we learned for the first time of the ringing work by our collegues in Israel and of the confusion of birdwatchers who thought they saw the first Saunder’s Terns in Europe!
All records of Saunder’s Terns in Israel have now been rejected. No pity with the birdwatchers needed, after all they got a new taxon to compensate for the loss of their Saunder’s Terns. The ringing project by Yosef Kiat c.s. revealed the terns, they named Little Terns could go to the Seychelles and further south.
From pictures taken by Jaysukh Parekh Suman in West India and by Abdulla Alkaabi and Howard King we learned that our tern moults in India and also breeds in Bahrain! see here:
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file:///C:/Users/Norman/Pictures/Radioactiverobins/Sterna%20Albifrons/BB%202023%20(04)%20Apr%20Little%20Terns%204.pdf
BB-2023-04-Apr-Little-Terns-4
