Sooty tern
Onychoprion fuscatus (Linnaeus, 1766)
The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is a species in the family Laridae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 183 g to 249 g and live up to 33.8 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
Quick facts about the sooty tern
- Weight
- 183 g – 249 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 90 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 33.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 35.8 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 28.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3.99 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
How big is the sooty tern?
Where does the sooty tern live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The sooty tern is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the sooty tern?
The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is a tern in the family Laridae. It is a seabird of the tropical oceans and can fly for years at a time, skimming the sea surface for food, and returning to land only to breed, on islands throughout the equatorial zone.
From the Wikipedia article “Sooty tern” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sooty_tern&oldid=1354272384), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the sooty tern endangered?
The sooty tern is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the sooty tern classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyLaridae
- genusOnychoprion
- SpeciesOnychoprion fuscatus (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms Onychoprion fuscata fuscata, Sterna fuliginosa
Other names and names in other languages (71)
- Egg birdEnglish
- WideawakeEnglish
- Roetseeswael (Roetsterretjie)Afrikaans
- خرشنة سخماءArabic
- خرشنة غبساءArabic
- Саждена рибаркаBulgarian
- xatrac foscCatalan
- Giree'girakChamorro
- rybák černohřbetýCzech
- Môr-Wennol FraithWelsh
- Môr-Wenoliaid BrithWelsh
- Sodfarvet TerneDanish
- RußseeschwalbeGerman
- fulga ŝternoEsperanto
- Charrán sombríoSpanish
- Charrán AlbinegroSpanish
- Charrán oscuroSpanish
- Charrán TiznadoSpanish
- Gaviota OscuraSpanish
- Gaviotín apizarradoSpanish
- nõgitiirEstonian
- پرستو دریایی پشت سیاهPersian
- nokitiiraFinnish
- Svartbøkut ternaFaroese
- Sterne fuligineuseFrench
- Geabhróg shúicheachIrish
- ‘Ewa‘EwaHawaiian
- שחפית כההHebrew
- crnoleđa čigraCroatian
- füstös csérHungarian
- Dara-laut sayap-hitamIndonesian
- MöttulþernaIcelandic
- MöttulßernaIcelandic
- Sterna scuraItalian
- Rondine di mare oscuraItalian
- Sterna fuligginosaItalian
- セグロアジサシJapanese
- 검은등제비갈매기Korean
- tamsioji žuvėdraLithuanian
- tumšais zīriņšLatvian
- കറുത്ത കടലാളMalayalam
- Taramrv
- Burung Camar AnginMalay
- bonte sternDutch
- sotterneNorwegian
- Meuchi Bachi PretuPapiamento
- Stèrnchi Bata PretoPapiamento
- Stèrnchi Batu PretuPapiamento
- rybitwa czarnogrzbietaPolish
- Caié-brancoPortuguese
- Andorinha-do-mar-escuraPortuguese
- gaivina-de-dorso-pretoPortuguese
- Garajau-de-dorso-pretoPortuguese
- trinta-réis-das-rocasPortuguese
- Тёмная крачкаRussian
- крачка темная.Russian
- GožučearretNorthern Sami
- rybár čiernochrbtýSlovak
- črnoperuta čigraSlovenian
- Čađava čigraSerbian
- sottärnaSwedish
- KavekaTahitian
- นกนางนวลแกลบดำThai
- talatāTongan
- isli sumruTurkish
- Kara Sırtlı SumruTurkish
- Крячок темнийUkrainian
- Темний крячокUkrainian
- крячок строкатийUkrainian
- 乌燕鸥Chinese
- 烏領燕鷗Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the sooty tern
Other species in the same genus Onychoprion.
Bridled tern
Onychoprion anaethetus
Aleutian tern
Onychoprion aleuticus
Spectacled tern
Onychoprion lunatus
CompareSooty tern vs Bridled ternSooty tern vs Aleutian ternSooty tern vs Spectacled tern
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the sooty tern?
An adult sooty tern weighs 183 g – 249 g and has a wingspan of 90 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the sooty tern live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the sooty tern for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the sooty tern endangered?
The sooty tern is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
How long does the sooty tern live?
The sooty tern has a recorded lifespan of 33.8 years.
What kind of animal is the sooty tern?
The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) belongs to the family Laridae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sooty-tern
“Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sooty-tern.
@misc{sooty_tern_2026,
title = {Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sooty-tern},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}