Brown noddy
{{short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Common noddy (Anous stolidus pileatus) in flight Michaelmas Cay.jpg
| image_caption = Anous stolidus pileatus, Queensland Australia
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Anous
| species = stolidus
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms = Sterna stolida {{small|Linnaeus, 1758}}
| range_map = Anous stolidus map.svg
}}
The brown noddy or common noddy (Anous stolidus) is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The brown noddy is a tropical seabird with a worldwide distribution, ranging from Hawaii to the Tuamotu Archipelago and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, from the Red Sea to the Seychelles and Australia in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean to Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean. The brown noddy is colonial, usually nesting on elevated situations on cliffs or in short trees or shrubs. It only occasionally nests on the ground. A single egg is laid by the female of a pair each breeding season. In India, the brown noddy is protected in the PM Sayeed Marine Birds Conservation Reserve.{{Cite news|url=https://scroll.in/article/961303/lakshadweep-gets-worlds-first-sea-cucumber-conservation-reserve-to-curb-smuggling-into-china|title=Lakshadweep gets world's first sea cucumber conservation reserve to curb smuggling into China|newspaper=Scroll|author=KA Shaji|date=13 May 2020|access-date=23 July 2020}}
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the brown noddy was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Sterna stolida.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=C. | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Volume 1| volume=v.1 | edition=10th | page=137 | publisher=Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii | language=la | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727042}} The genus Anous was introduced by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens in 1826.{{cite book|last1=Stephens|first1=James Francis|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36850144|title=General zoology, or Systematic natural history, by George Shaw|publisher=G. Kearsley|year=1826|volume=13|place=London|page=139|author-link=James Francis Stephens|issue=1}} The title page gives the year as 1825. The genus name Anous is Ancient Greek for "stupid" or "foolish". The specific name stolidus is Latin and also means "stupid" or "foolish".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n48 48], 366 }}
Four subspecies are recognised:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2019 | title=Noddies, gulls, terns, auks | work=World Bird List Version 9.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/gulls/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=24 June 2019 }}
- A. s. pileatus (Scopoli, 1786) – Red Sea, Indian Ocean east through the Pacific to Hawaii & Easter Island
- A. s. galapagensis Sharpe, 1879 – Galápagos Islands
- A. s. ridgwayi Anthony, 1898 – islands off western Mexico to Costa Rica
- A. s. stolidus (Linnaeus, 1758) – islands of the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic
Common Noddy 1 - Michaelmas.jpg|A. s. pileatus, Queensland, Australia
Anous stolidus galapagensis, isla Santa Cruz, islas Galápagos, Ecuador, 2015-07-26, DD 41.jpg|A. s. galapagensis, endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Brown noddy (Anous stolidus stolidus) in flight.jpg|A. s. stolidus, São Tomé and Príncipe
Description
The brown noddy is {{cvt|38|-|45|cm}} in length with a wingspan of {{cvt|75|-|86|cm}}. The plumage is a dark chocolate-brown with a pale-grey or white crown and forehead. It has a narrow incomplete white eye-ring.{{cite book| last1=Gochfeld | first1=M. | last2=Burger | first2=J. | last3=Kirwan | first3=G.M. | last4=Garcia | first4=E.F.J. | chapter=Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | editor4-last=Christie | editor4-first=D.A. | editor5-last=de Juana | editor5-first=E. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive | work=Birds of the World | date=2025 | publisher=Lynx Edicions | doi=10.2173/bow.brnnod.02 | chapter-url=http://www.hbw.com/node/54049 | access-date=17 April 2017 }} The tail is long and wedge-shaped, and the feet and legs are dark.{{cite book|last1=Vanner|first1=Michael|title=The Encyclopedia of North American Birds|year=2004|publisher=Parragon|location=Bath, England|isbn=0-75258-734-X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno0000vann/page/164 164]|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno0000vann/page/164}}
Behaviour
=Breeding=
The brown noddy is a colonial bird, usually nesting on cliffs, trees, or bushes. It occasionally lays its eggs on the bare ground. The nest itself is usually a platform nest, made of sticks and twigs.{{cite book|last=Hauber|first=Mark E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evQvBAAAQBAJ|title=The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World's Bird Species|date=1 August 2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-05781-1|location=Chicago|page=173|author-link=Mark Hauber}}
In their nuptial displays, the female and male bow and nod to each other. Courtship feeding and flights accompany this, in addition to the transfer of a small, freshly caught fish from the male to the female.
This bird lays a clutch of one pink cream egg with lilac and chestnut maculation. The egg usually measures around {{convert|52|by|35|mm|in}}. This egg is incubated by both sexes for 33 to 36 days, with each parent incubating for one or two days while their mate is feeding at sea. After the chick hatches, it grows quickly; usually reaching the weight of the parents in three weeks. When it fledges, about six to seven weeks after hatching, it can sometimes weigh more than the parents, although this weight is lost quickly once it starts to fly. At this point, the fledgling is starting to rely on its parents less and less as it learns how to provide for itself.
Anous stolidus MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.131.25.jpg|Egg
Anous stolidus by Gregg Yan 02.jpg|A. s. pileatus, Philippines
Common noddy (Anous stolidus pileatus) with chick Michaelmas Cay.jpg|A. s. pileatus with chick
Common Noddy (Anous stolidus) -adult and chick.jpg|A. s. stolidus with chick
Brown noddies (Anous stolidus stolidus).jpg|A. s. stolidus, São Tomé and Príncipe
=Diet=
The brown noddy forages by swooping over the water and dipping down to catch small squid, other molluscs, aquatic insects and fish (such as sardines, anchovies, etc.).{{Cite web |last=Pasea |first=Danielle |date=2017 |title=Anous stolidus (Brown Noddy or Common Noddy) |url=https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/images/Anous%20stolidus%20-%20Brown%20Noddy%20or%20Common%20Noddy.pdf |website=The University of the West Indies}} It will also feed on fruit, mostly the screw pine fruit.
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- "National Geographic" Field Guide to the Birds of North America {{ISBN|0-7922-6877-6}}
- Harrison, P. Seabirds, an Identification Guide (1983) {{ISBN|0-7470-1410-8}}
- Sibley, D. A., National Audubon Society, The Sibley Guide to Birds {{ISBN|0-679-45122-6}}
- Chardine, J.W. and R.D. Morris. 1996. Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus). In: The Birds of North America, No. 220 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
- Brown, William Yancey (1973). Breeding Biology of the Sooty Tern and Brown Noddy on Manana or Rabbit Island, Hawaii. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Hawaii.[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeding_Biology_of_Sooty_Terns_and_Brown_Noddies_on_Manana_Istand,_Hawaii.pdf]
External links
{{Commons category|Anous stolidus}}
{{Wikispecies|Anous stolidus}}
- [http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Anous-stolidus Xeno-canto: vocalization of the brown noddy]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q525717}}
Category:Birds of the Atlantic Ocean
Category:Birds of the Indian Ocean
Category:Birds of the Pacific Ocean
Category:Birds described in 1758
Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Category:Articles containing video clips