Marsh tern

Marsh terns
Black-fronted tern (above) Chlidonias albostriatus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Chlidonias Rafinesque, 1822
Type species
Sterna melanops[1] Rafinesque, 1822
Species
Chlidonias niger Chlidonias leucopterus Chlidonias hybrida Chlidonias albostriatus

The name marsh tern refers to terns of the genus Chlidonias, which typically breed in freshwater marshes, rather than coastal locations.

Taxonomy

The genus Chlidonias was introduced in 1822 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque with Sterna melanops Rafinesque = Sterna surinamensis Gmelin, J.F. as the type species.[2][3] The name Chlidonias is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow".[4]

Species

The genus contains four species:[5]

Genus Chlidonias – Rafinesque, 1822 – four species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Black tern	Chlidonias niger (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies C. n. niger (Linnaeus, 1758) C. n. surinamensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789)	Europe, Western Asia and North America.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
White-winged tern or white-winged black tern	Chlidonias leucopterus (Temminck, 1815)	Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Whiskered tern	Chlidonias hybrida (Pallas, 1811) Three subspecies C. h. hybrida – (Pallas, 1811) C. h. delalandii – (Mathews, 1912) C. h. javanicus – (Horsfield, 1821)	Europe and the Palearctic (northwestern Africa and central and southern Europe to southeastern Siberia, eastern China and south to Pakistan and northern India)	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Black-fronted tern	Chlidonias albostriatus (Gray, 1845)	New Zealand[6]	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN

Notice the hesitation in the gender of the epithet of the scientific names, as they are usually masculine (albostriatus, leucopterus or niger), but in the case of the whiskered tern is mostly used as feminine (hybrida), maybe from the influence of the previous gender used, Sterna.

The black-bellied tern (Sterna acuticauda) and the white-cheeked tern (Sterna repressa) might also be placed in Chlidonias.

References

1. "Laridae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
2. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 327.
3. Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel (21 February 1822). "On the wandering sea-birds of the western states". Kentucky Gazette. Lexington, Kentucky. p. 3, col 5. The article was reprinted in: Rhoads, Samuel N. (1912). "Additions to the known ornithological publications of C. S. Rafinesque". The Auk. 29: 191-198 [197].
4. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "Noddies, gulls, terns, skimmers, skuas, auks". IOC World Bird List Version 14.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
6. Bridge, E. S.; Jones, A. W. & Baker, A. J. (2005). A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution Archived 2006-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35: 459–469.