7 
tional Center for Atmospheric Re- 
search, Boulder, Colorado. 
Sooty Terns are widespread and 
abundant tropical and subtropical 
birds, black above and white below, 
with a white forehead, black feet, 
legs, and bill. They are about 1 5 
to 17 inches long. They feed on 
squid and small fish and are often 
seen skimming and hovering over 
the water. Their breeding varies 
throughout the year; in some areas 
it follows a regular annual cycle 
but in other areas the cycle may be 
irregular or even continuous. Sooty 
Terns breed in large colonies, which 
may contain as many as 500,000 
birds or more . They do not build 
nests. Instead they usually lay 
their one egg on the bare ground. 
During February 17 to 20, 
1967, while the USC&GS Ship SURVEY- 
OR visited Palmyra, Sooty Terns 
were nesting on most of the aban- 
doned airstrip. No other nesting 
areas were found. While renovating 
the runway for the Line Islands Ex- 
periment, it was unfortunately ne- 
cessary to destroy a great number 
of freshly laid eggs. The con- 
struction work drove the adult birds 
into an area of app roximately 16,000 
square meters on the northeastern 
end of the airstrip. The density 
of terns in this area was about 6 
birds per square meter, with only 
about 2 of these actually sitting 
Oil eggs . The Sooty Terns on eggs 
) 
Density of Sooty Terns in the Airstrip Nesting Site. 
Photo by C . C . Mathewson 
