Proposal (1045) to South American Classification Committee
Establish
English names for three species of Gygis
Note
from Remsen:
This proposal has also been submitted to NACC.
Both
NACC and SACC have voted to treat the former Gygis alba as three species: G.
alba, G. candida, and G. microrhyncha. In establishing English
names for the new species, we would appear to have two basic options. First, we
could base group names for the new species on the current English name White
Tern. Second, we could base group names for the new species on the prior
English name Fairy Tern.
Ordinarily,
we would base the group name on the current English name; this is our standard
operating procedure. However, Pratt and VanderWerf, in their proposal to split G. alba, advocated a return to a form of
the prior name Fairy Tern, in large part because of the persistence of this
name despite the “official” name having been changed to White Tern some 40+
years ago. Here’s their discussion from NACC Proposal 2025-A-3:
As
a single iconic species, G. alba has
long been, and continues to be, called "fairy tern" by the lay public
(Wilds, in litt.). That name has now been restricted by various
"official" lists, including AOS, to Sternula nereis of southern Australia and New Zealand, but its use
persists elsewhere for G. alba,
especially where the birds are conspicuous to large English-speaking
populations. Even among those who use "White Tern", that name is
often, perhaps usually, followed by some phrase such as "also known as
fairy tern," most recently by Hosein (2024). In Honolulu, where the bird
is an official city icon, the hybrid name "White Fairy Tern" has
gained popularity as an informal way to get around the problem (see Pratt 2020
for references, especially Floyd 2019). Note that, according to NACC
guidelines, if we recognize 3 species of Gygis,
the unmodified name White Tern would be reserved for the original unsplit
species.
Most
NACC voters were sympathetic to this line of argument, but most SACC voters
advocated a group name based on White Tern.
One
SACC voter, A. W. Diamond, expressed strong support for the use of Fairy Tern
as the group name based on continued local persistence of this name in the
range of the species:
“I see that most respondents prefer
some version of White Tern because Sternula
nereis has co-opted Fairy Tern, but throughout the Indian Ocean (and I
think in Hawaii too?) the common name among both local people and visitors
unaware of the existence of S. nereis
is Fairy Tern, and since they are so numerous there, more weight should be
given to local usage and acceptance. The arcane 'rules' of English bird
nomenclature are irrelevant to most people who live among the birds. Also
'White Tern' is as bland and unappealing as 'Black Tern' - surely we can do
better?”
Another
indication of the persistence of Fairy Tern for Gygis is the fact that eBird/Clements changed the English name of S. nereis from Fairy Tern to Australian
Fairy Tern because eBird users were regularly submitting records of Fairy Tern
Regarding
use of Fairy Tern for S. nereis precluding
use of this as the group name for species of Gygis, the principle that a species name for one species should not
be used as the group name for other species is generally followed, but there
are exceptions involving both hyphenated (or two-word) group names and single
word group names. For example, Rock Pigeon
We
strongly suspect that a major reason for the persistence of the name Fairy Tern
for G. alba is the appropriateness of
this evocative, ethereal name for this species, as opposed to White Tern, which
has been called bland and insipid. Species of Gygis, it is true, are the whitest of terns (or erstwhile terns),
and this is an apt name in this sense, but almost all terns are mostly white,
rendering the name somewhat redundant. Nevertheless, the name White Tern is
appropriate for a tern with entirely white plumage, and it has been the
established name for more than 40 years, garnering acceptance among many.
Many
names for Gygis in other cultures have a mystical quality to them. In
our view, the fact that we don’t currently have a similarly evocative name in
English is unfortunate. For example, in the Hawaiian language, the bird is
known as Manu-o-Kū, named after the god of war. In Samoan, it is Manusina,
a bird that predicts the tides and guides fisherman to their fish. European
languages other than English use Fairy Tern for this species (e.g., its name in
German is Feenseeschwalbe). Many voters on the SACC proposal (and early
commenters in NACC) suggested that “fairy” more appropriately captures the
ethereal quality of this bird.
For
the reasons stated above, especially the arguments referencing widespread local
persistence and the existing exceptions to naming conventions, we recommend
adopting the group name Fairy-Tern for the newly recognized species of Gygis. We prefer this name to “Fairy
Tern” (unhyphenated) because it emphasizes the relatedness of these three
species and the fact that they form a distinctive subfamily divergent from
other terns, and
As
to names for the indiv
Recommendation:
We
recommend adopting Atlantic Fairy-Tern for G.
alba and Little Fairy-Tern for G.
microrhyncha. For G. candida, we
recommend either Blue-billed Fairy-Tern or Indo-Pacific Fairy-Tern.
Note
from Remsen on SACC voting procedure: Let’s
break this down into four parts, simplified into Y/N options except for D.
A. YES/NO: Use
Fairy-Tern as the group name for the species in Gygis (as opposed to
White-Tern; note both require hyphens under SACC guidelines.
B. YES/NO: Use Atlantic
as the modifier for G. alba. If
NO, provide alternative.
C. YES/NO: Use Little
for the modifier for G. microrhyncha.
If NO, provide alternative.
D. Vote for your
preferred modifier for G. candida. Be
sure to see comments on the earlier SACC proposal on this: SACC
1032, part C:
1. Blue-billed
2. Indo-Pacific
3. Common
4. Pacific
References:
American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. Check-list of North American birds. 7th edition. American
Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC.
Hosein, A. 2024. A once-in-a-lifetime encounter: rare White
Tern spotted in St. Croix's Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge.
BirdsCaribbean August 16, 2024. birdscaribbean.org.
Howell, S. N. G., and K. Zufelt. 2019. Oceanic Birds of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton
and Oxford.
Pratt, H. D. 2020. Species limits and English names in the genus Gygis (Laridae). Bulletin of the British
Ornithologists' Club 140:195-208.
Terry Chesser, Max
Kirsch, and Oscar Johnson, April 2025
Voting Chart: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCPropChart1044+.htm
Comments from Remsen:
A. NO. I am among those
who mourn the loss of the charismatic and appropriate “Fairy” in the name of
this species. Doug Pratt and Tony
Diamond made some excellent points. BUT
I vote against “Fairy-Tern” because of the perpetual confusion with S.
nereis, a species in a different family/subfamily, which would then have to
be called what eBird calls it now, Australian Fairy Tern, with no hyphen. And when the anti-hyphen people remove all
hyphens, then you really have some confusion, with two sets of unrelated
species all called Something Fairy Tern. Having two groups of species with identical group
names, sympatric no less but in different families/subfamilies, is just too
messy and would occlude the taxonomic distinctiveness of Gygis. White Tern has 40 years or whatever of
traction, yet ornithology has survived. I
was sad over the loss of Fairy Tern for Gygis, but I got over it long,
long ago. Pedantic as it might seem to
some, I think it’s more important in this case to not revive names that we now
know are taxonomically misleading. White Tern is actually a terrific name and
not that bland in my opinion because not many birds have stand-alone “White” as
their modifier, because so few birds are all white. On the SACC list, I counted 236 species with
“white” in their name, but of those only 5 are just White Something: White
Ibis, White Hawk, White Woodpecker, White Bellbird, and White Monjita. Those are all excellent names. That many terns are mostly white (especially
basic-plumaged Gull-billed Tern), I see that as a minor problem in practice.
“The comparison with Grass Wren and Grasswren
is somewhat flawed, in my opinion, because they are as allopatric as you can
get, and no one birding in Australia is going to stop and wonder … gee, is this
a Cistothorus .. or vice-versa. I
would bet that a substantial number of Australian and Neotropical birders have
never heard of the distant bird with the similar name.”
“B. YES, for reasons
outlined by Pratt and others.
“C. YES, for reasons
outlined by Pratt and others.
“D. I vote for
“Indo-Pacific” (#2), but I’m torn on this one because “Blue-billed” also good
in my opinion because it calls attention to an important phenotypic
character. I could easily be persuaded
to change to Blue-billed depending on other’s comments. “Common” is also not bad – as noted by
Kimball Garrett elsewhere, this is an appropriate use of that modifier, but
widespread visceral reaction against Common as a modifier would make me rank it
third if we have to go to ranked-choice voting.”
Comments from Rasmussen (who has Robbins
vote):
A.
“NO on adopting Fairy-Tern (or Fairytern). It’s a beautiful name for beautiful
birds, no doubt about that. But the name Fairy Tern has long been in sole use
for Sternula nereis (except for e.g. the Clements list modifying it to
“Australian Fairy Tern”), and it’s the only English name in wide usage for that
distantly related species.
“Since
I voted on Gygis names in the first round, I’ve seen Sternula
nereis in New Zealand, where the local subspecies has been on the brink of
extinction, and has only been saved at a few breeding sites in northern North
Island through intensive protection. Given its special importance there, and
the fact that English names matter especially to conservation efforts, I
believe that the adoption of Fairy-Tern or Fairytern for Gygis would
create needless confusion, especially in this area where both occur (the Gygis
being more or less casual to North Island, but breeding in the Kermadecs, where
rare and of special concern, being listed as “Nationally Critical”). And I’ve
also personally experienced the confusion that these names can cause---on a
pelagic trip off New Caledonia someone called out Fairy Tern, and I was thus
looking futilely for a non-existent all-white tern, when in fact it was a Sternula
nereis flying among the numerous Roseate Terns. I mention this because I
really think recycling Fairy-Tern for Gygis would have an outsized and
negative impact on birding and perhaps even conservation efforts in
Australasia, and also could be considered a Northern Hemisphere bias. It would
also surely cause unnecessary problems for e.g. eBird and other citizen science
platforms.
“A
couple of other names that have been used for Gygis include Angel Tern
and Atoll Tern. Either of those would be preferable to me to recycling
Fairy-Tern in any form. I’m less in favor of calling them noddies, as this
reinforces the erroneous previous assumptions of relationships, and even though
we have so many such cases, I don’t think we should knowingly revive names that
aren’t phylogenetically accurate, although White-Noddy wouldn't cause the
confusion that Fairy-Tern would.
“In
summary, White-Tern is perfectly adequate, familiar, descriptive, and not
already taken.
B.,
C., D. “I vote for Atlantic White-Tern, Blue-billed White-Tern, and Little
White-Tern. I'm also OK with Indo-Pacific as a second choice or Common as a
third choice for candida.”
Comments
from Areta:
“A. No, for reasons
abundantly expressed by Van and Pam here, and by more people in our previous
proposal
“B.C.D. I am not in
favour of the splits, but given that the split has passed, I vote for Atlantic
White Tern G. alba, Little White Tern G. microrhyncha, and
Blue-billed White Tern G. candida (if there must be a hyphen, i.e.,
White-Tern, so be it) = [B. Yes. C. Yes. D. 1]"
Comments from Mark
Pearman (voting for Naka): “I’ll maintain my vote as before in 1032C. The hyphen
issue needs no additional comments and is each to their own.
“A. NO. Using
Fairy-Tern lends unnecessary confusion whereas White Tern (White-Tern) has
decades of traction and is familiar to all concerned.
“B. YES to Atlantic
White-Tern G. alba.
“C. YES to Little White
Tern G. microrhyncha.
“D1. I prefer
Blue-billed White-Tern G. candida to call attention to the unique bill
pigmentation.”
Comments
from Kimball Garrett (voting for Claramunt):
“A. NO. I understand
the sentimental attachment to “Fairy Tern” (thus “Fairy-Tern”) as a group name,
but I agree with several others that the long-standing use of “Fairy Tern” for
Australasian Sternula nereis invites unnecessary confusion. Furthermore,
“White Tern” (thus “White-Tern”) has not only been in common use by
AOU/AOS/etc. for well over 40 years but is entirely appropriate for an
essentially pure white bird. I note that Gochfeld and Burger, in their HBW
account for White Tern, list “Fairy Tern(!)” [exclamation point theirs] under
“Other Common Names.” I suppose that’s one way to distinguish it from Sternula
nereis.
“B. YES.
“C. YES.
“D. FIRST CHOICE is
Common White-Tern, for reasons I mentioned in my earlier comments. Population
size of G. candida is likely in the hundreds of thousands, whereas world
populations of G. alba and G. microrhyncha are likely only in the
thousands [see Birds of the World species account, and also Thibault and Cibois
(2017) Birds of Eastern Polynesia: a biogeographic atlas, Lynx Edicions)]. So, candida
is truly the “common” white-tern. Its geographic range is also huge relative to
that of both microrhyncha and alba, with a maritime range
including waters off five continents. I
realize that mine is probably a losing argument, as the modifier “Common” is
very much out of favor these days, so I present a second choice ranked only
slightly lower.
“SECOND CHOICE is
Indo-Pacific White-Tern. A couple of syllables and a hyphen is a small price to
pay for much more geographic accuracy.
“But “Pacific White
Tern” would suffice as a THIRD CHOICE, as ”Pacific” is a modifier that has been
used for some other taxa which range into the Indian and Pacific oceans/coasts
(e.g. Pacific Gull, Pacific Reef-Egret, Pacific Golden-Plover) whereas “Indo-Pacific”
has not been used for any avian species.
“Blue-billed
White-Tern” is my FOURTH CHOICE, as it emphasizes a character which is
virtually never seen in birds at sea, though easier to discern in birds around
nesting areas as they tend to be quite tame (and, when perched or hovering in
front of one’s face, motionless enough for the observer to study bill color).
The thickness of the bill at the base is probably a better character in the
field (no, I’m not arguing for “Thick-billed White-Tern”). In fact, Murphy
(Oceanic Birds of South America) says “…bills which
are relatively deep at the base are shared by representatives from islands in
various parts of the tropical Pacific, and are distinguishable at a glance from
the slender bills of all South Atlantic birds.”
Comments from David
Donsker (who has Bonaccorso vote):
“A. I vote NO to adopting “Fairy-Tern” as the
species group name for Gygis. Lovely and compelling as that name may be,
it will likely cause continual, unavoidable and unnecessary confusion with
Fairy Tern Sternula nereis. I would strongly support “White-Tern” as the
group name of the Gygis species.
“B. YES for Atlantic
White-Tern for G. alba.
“C. YES for Little
White-Tern for G. microrhyncha.
“D. I vote for “Common”
White-Tern for G. candida. Mundane as this may sound for such a lovely
and ethereal species, it is by far the most widespread and commonly encountered
form. “Indo-Pacific” White-Tern, though precise, is simply too wordy for my
taste, and “Blue-billed” White-Tern, though calling attention to a distinctive
morphologic feature, is something that few will appreciate in the field. My
second choice would be “Pacific” White-Tern. As others have pointed out
“Pacific” is used as a modifier for other species that are found in both Indian
and Pacific Ocean realms, though none has as wide a distribution in the Indian
Ocean as does Gygis candida. As such, the restrictive modifier “Pacific”
would be open to valid criticism.”
Comments from Stiles:
“A. NO
“B. YES
“C. YES
“D. in order of my
preferences: 1. Indo-Pacific (accurate, appropriate for a wide-ranging pelagic
species). 2. Common (in view of its much wider distribution and undoubtedly
larger population. 3. Blue-billed (unique in Gygis, but all but
impossible to use for identification at sea). and 4) Pacific (which doesn´t do
justice to its wider distribution).”
Comments
from Lane:
“Honestly, I find myself entirely indifferent to whether White Tern or Fairy
Tern are kept for the daughter species of this complex. I see the benefits of
both, but I think there is a lot of emotion tied to keeping "Fairy"
in the name, and I have no problem with that. As mentioned in the proposal,
there are work-arounds for avoiding conflicts with the Sternula called
Fairy Tern. Thus: A) Yes to using Fairy-Tern. B) YES to Atlantic F-T. C) YES to
Little F-T. D) YES to Blue-billed F-T.”
Comments
from David Bishop (guest voter):
“A.
YES. Use Fairy-Tern as the group name for the species in Gygis (as
opposed to White-Tern; note both require hyphens under SACC guidelines. I
strongly favour Fairy-Tern as this evocative name immediately, for me, conjures
up an image of this very special bird. Fully endorse A. W. Diamond’s argument.
I realise this causes a little bit of confusion with Australian Fairy Tern, but
there are so many similar instances with regard to the use of English bird
names that one more will not harm. Furthermore, these are just labels, and if
we stick with what most people associate with Gygis the easier it will
be.
“B.
YES. Nothing to add, seems sensible.
“C.
YES. Probably the best we can do with limited options if any.
“D.
1. Blue-billed - Seems to be the most appropriate; however, this situation does
illustrate the problem when a taxon is split into similar species as to how
best to provide English names. (Ranks for the others: 2. Indo-Pacific. 3.
Common. 4. Pacific.