Open image gallery
22-23 cm, 52 g. One of the smallest terns in the region. Adults have dark brown cap, appearing black in the field. Cap passes well below the blackish brown eye from base of the lower mandible. The remainder of upper body uniform grey. Tail, underwing and belly white. Outer primaries darker grey than the inners. Bill is black, sharply pointed and yellow at the base. Legs are dull yellow, but incorrectly depicted black in most field guides (Simmons 2005).
Damara Terns occur along high-energy desert coasts during the non-breeding season and in sheltered bays and shallow reefs during the breeding season (Braby et al. 1992). Salt pans, gravel plains and gravel slacks close to the ocean are favoured nesting areas in South Africa (Watson and Kerley 1995, Underhill 2000), while salt pans (southern Namibia) and large gravel plains (northern Namibia) are favoured elsewhere (Simmons et al. 1998). Damara Terns breed mainly from November to March, with variation according to location. The clutch size is typically a single egg (Braby 2011); this is unusual for small terns that more often lay two eggs. Nest location in Namibia is influenced by jackal activity: nests are located farther inland where density of jackal tracks at the coast is high (RE Simmons, R Heber-Percy and J Braby unpubl. data). In South Africa, jackals are less problematic and colonies tend to be closer to the ocean (J Cooper pers. comm.). Presence of jackals and humans influences success of nests; reducing disturbance can double the production of chicks in protected colonies (Williams et al. 2004, Braby et al. 2009). The species rarely roosts with other terns on the coast (Simmons et al. 2010). Long-term studies indicate that immature survival from fledging to adulthood is high at 0.59 and individuals start to breed at 3-4 years of age (Braby et al. 2011). Annual adult survival is high at 0.88 and the probability of a breeding bird moving to another colony is low at 0.06 (Braby et al. 2011). These statistics indicate that adult birds are long lived and are faithful to their breeding colonies. The generation length of 11 years is the mean of two calculated values derived from published and/or extrapolated estimates of mean age at first breeding, maximum longevity in the wild and mean annual adult survival (BirdLife International 2014). Birds forage mainly over shallow water, often in bays, over reefs, or in salt works, probably because surf-zone fish are concentrated there and less often in open water (B Clark pers. comm.). Terns also plunge dive for fish behind breakers in the open ocean and may do so at night (Braby et al. 1992). Foraging birds tend to avoid murky, sediment-filled water in preference for clear water (Simmons and Braine 1994, Braby 2011). Damara Terns feed on small fish that are rarely longer than a bill length (3 cm), including needle fish (Tylosaurus species), larval blennies (Blennidae), Cape Silverside Atherina breviceps, and Cape Anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus (Clinning 1978, Simmons and Braine 1994, Braby 2011).
SANBI is currently in the process of adding more information about species to this database.
