Sooty Tern

About the Sooty Tern

A true seabird that spends almost its entire life on the wing over the open ocean, the Sooty Tern is boldly patterned - blackish above and clean white below, with a white forehead and a deeply forked tail. Nicknamed the wideawake for its noisy, incessant calls at breeding colonies, it is superbly built for a pelagic life.

Sooty Terns snatch small fish and squid from the surface without landing, and remarkably they can stay aloft for years at a time before first returning to a colony to breed.

In Texas the Sooty Tern is a bird of the far offshore Gulf, most often noticed when hurricanes and tropical storms sweep individuals - sometimes many - toward and even well inland of the coast.

A note from behind the lens: outside of storm events this is a deep-water pelagic bird. In the aftermath of a tropical system, check coastal lakes and shorelines for grounded birds, and shoot respectfully - storm-blown seabirds are exhausted and need space.