Kauaʻi record · kba_bird_sooty_tern
Sooty Tern
Onychoprion fuscatus
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About Sooty Tern
Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is recorded as a migrant or nonbreeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.
Kauaʻi evidence
Bishop Museum island checklist (version 2, 2017) lists Kauaʻi status M: migrant or nonbreeding visitor. See original island table. A Hawaiʻi-level record is available, but the species needs a documented Kauaʻi observation before local ecological conclusions are drawn.
Occurrence evidence
bishop_island_checklist_2017
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Onychoprion fuscatus
- Common names
- Sooty Tern
- Family
- Laridae
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Kauaʻi documented: migrant or nonbreeding visitor (2017 island checklist)
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-09-13
- Evidence limits
- Island occurrence supported by the 2017 checklist; abundance and current year presence are not established here
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Marine Seabird
- Food and resource needs
- Squid, goatfish, flyingfish, and mackerel scad
- Reproduction
- Suitable nesting or roosting sites, seasonal food, and protection from disturbance and predators.
- Shelter
- Shelter and structure within marine seabird.
Threats and conservation
- Threats
- Rats, cats, native nest predators, overfishing through prey-surfacing disruption, and oil pollution
- Conservation actions
- Lehua social-attraction systems, predator-free biosecurity, colony monitoring, and marine prey/predatory-fish condition tracking
- Monitoring
- Document date, place, observer, habitat, behavior, and supporting media for any Kauaʻi observation.
- Data gaps
- Update island status with dated contemporary records · Specific Kauaʻi habitat and abundance need local evidence
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Restoration Target With Nearby Kaula Breeding Context
- Seasonal description
- Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) is recorded as a migrant or nonbreeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.