Anous stolidus
Silhouette: Cristian Gutierrez-Ibanez · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The brown noddy, common noddy or noddy tern (Anous stolidus) is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The brown noddy is a tropical seabird with a worldwide distribution, ranging from Hawaii to the Tuamotu Archipelago and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, from the Red Sea to the Seychelles and Australia in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean to Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean. The brown noddy is colonial, usually nesting on elevated situations on cliffs or in short trees or shrubs. It only occasionally nests on the ground. A single egg is laid by the female of a pair each breeding season. In India, the brown noddy is protected in the PM Sayeed Marine Birds Conservation Reserve.
The first formal description of the brown noddy was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Sterna stolida. The genus Anous was introduced by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens in 1826. The genus name Anous is Ancient Greek for "stupid" or "foolish". The specific... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isla del Coco National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Coiba National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 6 | Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Bastimentos Island National Marine Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Marino Ballena National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 10 | Tortuguero National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Corcovado National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 12 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 13 | Cahuita National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 14 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 15 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 16 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Leofoo Village Theme Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Noddy sighting in Coiba National Park on a given day, based on 34 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 91st most-seen of the 118 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Noddy in Coiba National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September and November–April, the lowest months. Those are among Coiba National Park's wettest months, with about 500 mm of rain a month against 35 mm in February. May and October have too few records to rate.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown Noddy sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 16
Of the 16 parks where we can rate Brown Noddy sightings, Coiba National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Isla del Coco National Park (Costa Rica, about 70%) and Galápagos Islands (Ecuador, about 60%).
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Brown Noddy that you can see in Coiba National Park (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Royal Tern (about 20%), Laughing Gull (about 10%) and Black Tern (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown Noddy is recorded against all the birds logged in Coiba National Park (34 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
