Kauaʻi record · kba_bird_gray_backed_tern
Gray-backed Tern
Onychoprion lunatus
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About Gray-backed Tern
Gray-backed Tern (Onychoprion lunatus) is recorded as a migrant or nonbreeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.
Kauaʻi evidence
Bishop Museum island checklist (version 2, 2017) lists Kauaʻi status M: migrant or nonbreeding visitor. See original island table. A Hawaiʻi-level record is available, but the species needs a documented Kauaʻi observation before local ecological conclusions are drawn.
Occurrence evidence
bishop_island_checklist_2017
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Onychoprion lunatus
- Common names
- Gray-backed Tern
- Family
- Laridae
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Kauaʻi documented: migrant or nonbreeding visitor (2017 island checklist)
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-09-13
- Evidence limits
- Island occurrence supported by the 2017 checklist; abundance and current year presence are not established here
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Shrublands
- Food and resource needs
- Fish including five-horned cowfish, juvenile flyingfish, goatfish, herring, and dolphinfish, plus squid, crustaceans, mollusks, and insects.
- Reproduction
- Suitable nesting or roosting sites, seasonal food, and protection from disturbance and predators.
- Shelter
- Shelter and structure within shrublands.
Threats and conservation
- Threats
- Human disturbance, exposed egg/chick predation, storm-tide exposure of surf-zone nests, and structure collisions at some sites
- Conservation actions
- Lehua social attraction, low-disturbance colony management, predator/pathway monitoring, and storm-exposure site evaluation
- Monitoring
- Document date, place, observer, habitat, behavior, and supporting media for any Kauaʻi observation.
- Data gaps
- Update island status with dated contemporary records · Specific Kauaʻi habitat and abundance need local evidence
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Restoration Target With Distribution Uncertainty
- Seasonal description
- Gray-backed Tern (Onychoprion lunatus) is recorded as a migrant or nonbreeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.