“Chlidonias leucopterus or Chlidonias leucoptera” 

What to Know About the About the White-winged Tern in Uganda?

The white-winged tern, also called the white-winged black tern, is a tern species in the family Laridae. It is commonly found in or around freshwater bodies globally.

The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek khelidonios, “swallow-like”, from khelidon, “swallow”. The specific leptopterus is also Greek from leptos, “slender”, and pteros, “feathered”, itself from pteron, “wing”.

The name ‘white-winged tern’ is used by the formal ornithological recording authorities, however,the older alternative ‘white-winged black tern’ is still frequent in popular use.

How Does the White-winged Tern in Uganda Look like?

Mature birds have short and small red legs measuring 22-25mm from the feathers and black bill, black neck and belly, dark grey back, with a white rump and grey-white tail, square-like in juveniles.

The face is streaked yellow. Like its name, the wings are mainly white. The inside wing is grimy with brown-striped coverts.

In non-breeding plumage, most of the black turns into white or pale grey, with remining few black feathers.

How Does the white-winged tern in Uganda Feed?

White-winged terns do not dive for fish, the rather fly slowly on the water surface-picking items and catching insects in flight. They largely feed on insects and small fish.

How Does The White-winged Tern in Uganda nest?

The build a shallow cup in a bank of aquatic plants and place it over water 30-120 cm deep on floating mats of vegetation, or on the shores.

They nest with single or mixed-species colonies with their nests usually distanced from one another.