Anous minutus
Silhouette: Cristian Gutierrez-Ibanez · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The black noddy (Anous minutus), also known as white-capped noddy, is a species of tern in the family Laridae. It is a medium-sized seabird with black plumage and a white cap that closely resembles the lesser noddy with which it was at one time considered conspecific. The black noddy has slightly darker plumage and dark rather than pale lores.
The black noddy was first formally described by German naturalist and lawyer Friedrich Boie in 1844 under its current binomial name. The genus name Anous is ancient Greek for "stupid" or "foolish". The specific name minutus is the Latin for "small".
There are seven subspecies: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isla del Coco National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black Noddy sighting in Sydney on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 97th most-seen of the 243 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Noddy in Sydney on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, the lowest months. That is one of Sydney's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain against 45 mm in September.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Noddy sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Sydney, in our data
Sydney is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black Noddy sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Black Noddy that you can see in Sydney (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Silver Gull (about 50%) and Crested Tern (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Noddy is recorded against all the birds logged in Sydney (11 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
