page_title: Roseate tern
section_title: Breeding
hierarchical_section_title: Roseate tern / Behaviour and ecology / Breeding
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rosenseeschwalbe Sterna dougallii , Ei, Coll. Museum Wiesbaden English: Roseate tern Sterna dougallii , egg, Coll. Museum Wiesbaden
context_page_description: The roseate tern is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific dougallii refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall. "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage.
context_section_description: This species breeds in colonies on coasts and islands, at times with other seabirds. In Australian territory, it has been recorded nesting alongside the black-naped tern (S. sumatrana), lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis), crested tern (T. bergii), fairy tern (Sternula nereis), bridled tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) and silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae). It nests in a ground scrape, often in a hollow or under dense vegetation, and lays one or two (rarely three) eggs. It is less defensive of its nest and young than other white terns, often relying on Arctic and common terns in the surrounding colony to defend them. In smaller colonies, they may rarely mate with these other tern species.
  The white-bellied sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) and silver gull are known to prey on eggs and chicks, while the turnstone (Arenaria interpres), black rat (Rattus rattus) and King's skink (Egernia kingii) are suspected predators.
caption: Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden
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