• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.
Little Fairy Terns (Gygis microrhyncha)
Joe H

Little Fairy Terns (Gygis microrhyncha) (Gygis microrhyncha)

A pair of Little Fairy Terns (Gygis microrhyncha). Once considered a sub-species of the Common Fairy Tern, AKA White Tern (Gygis alba), I think microrhyncha is currently given species status since the 80s or 90s. This species is restricted to French Polynesia and the Republic of Kiribati. I photographed both alba and microrhyncha on Tarawa Atoll.
Click to expand...
Location
Tarawa Atoll, Republic of Kiribati
Date taken
5 September 2009
Scientific name
Gygis microrhyncha
Equipment used
Canon PowerShot A720 (digital point and shoot)
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Stanley Jones and sbarnhardt
Joe H
Probably the best discussion of microrhyncha that I’ve seen on-line was from the British Ornithology Club’s 2020 bulletin 140, number 2. https://boc-online.org/bulletins/downloads/BBOC1402-PDFa.pdf

They favored three species of Gygis, but I’m sure it’s still being sorted out. In any case, I couldn’t find any pictures of microrhyncha on Birdforum so I thought I’d post mine.
 
sbarnhardt
Opus Editor
Thank you for sharing this excellent image with us.
It is appreciated very much.
Barney
 

Media information

Category
Asia, Australia & Pacific Islands
Added by
Joe H
Date added
View count
192
Comment count
4

Image metadata

Filename
Gygis microrhyncha.jpg
File size
441.8 KB
Date taken
Thu, 03 September 2009 1:32 PM
Dimensions
1793px x 1567px

Share this media

Back
Top