Records of White Tern Gygis alba in Panama and Potential Connections to El Niño Events

Authors

Daniel Buitrago-Rosas, Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteFollow
Jorge L. Medina
Pedro L. Castillo-Caballero

Abstract

In Panama, the White Tern Gygis alba is a vagrant seabird that has been reported very rarely. Its first record was in 1983, during a very strong El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event that generated a massive invasion of unusual seabirds from South America into the Panama Bay. Unlike other vagrant seabirds, the White Tern remained unrecorded again until 2016. This note reports the second, and first confirmed, occurrence of White Tern to Panama, along with separate confirmed sightings in 2019. We briefly review these records and their potential connections to ENSO events.

DOI

http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.48.2.1370

Creative Commons License

Terms of use for work posted in Scholar Commons.

Recommended Citation

Buitrago-Rosas, Daniel; Medina, Jorge L.; and Castillo-Caballero, Pedro L. (2020) "Records of White Tern Gygis alba in Panama and Potential Connections to El Niño Events," Marine Ornithology: Vol. 48 : Iss. 2 , Article 10.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.48.2.1370
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/marine_ornithology/vol48/iss2/10