SURVEY PROGRAM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION . WASHINGTON . D.C. 
March 1966 No. 4 
MISSIONARY REPORTS UNUSUAL 
FLIGHT OF BLUE-GRAY NODDY 
The Pacific Program recently 
received a letter from C. Scar- 
borough, District Missionary in the 
Gilbert Islands, in which he report- 
ed capturing a bird with one of our 
bands on Onotoa, Gilbert Islands, 
November l 4 , 1965 • When we checked 
our banding records we discovered 
that the bird was a Blue -gray Nodc^y, 
a small tern about eleven inches 
long, which had been banded the pre- 
ceding September on McKean Island 
in the Phoenix group. This noddy 
had travelled about 63 0 miles to 
the west across the op en ocean l 
Smithsonian personnel only 
very rarely have seen Blue-gray 
Noddies more than a few miles from 
their breeding areas and, although 
we had banded almost 1800 of these 
terns in the Leeward, Line, and 
Phoenix Islands, we had never 
obtained any record of interisland 
movement. We were thus immensely 
pleased to receive Scarborough’ s 
communication that gave our first 
record of long distance oceanic 
flight in this poorly known species . 
Missionary Scarborough also 
reported that the tern had arrived 
at Onotoa accompanied by heavy rain 
and strong westerly winds whichper- 
haps explains how this rather weak 
flying bird, compared with other 
terns, reached the island. The 
noddy was in excellent condition and 
when Scarborough released it, the 
bird flew away towards the south. 
These noddies breed on several 
islands in the Central Pacific, 
among them McKean Island in the 
Phoenix group, Christmas Island in 
the Line group, and Necker Island in 
the Hawaiian Leeward Islands. On 
these islands they make no nest but 
lay their single spotted egg direct- 
ly on the ground, usually in rocky 
depressions in the coral rubble or 
under projecting coral ledges. When 
disturbed at the nest they arise in 
dove-like fluttery flight but are 
very silent, seldom uttering more 
than a few call notes. On islands 
which have not been frequently 
visited the Blue-gray Noddies are 
amazingly tame and fly within inches 
of the observer’s head. At such 
times they are easily caught with a 
butterfly net or even by hand but 
after a few days they grow wary and 
fly about just beyond reach. 
-Roger B. Clapp 
