Order CHARADRIIFORMES

Gulls
Robust, mainly grey and white seabirds with powerful flight, often flocking, assertive, and able to exploit a variety of niches on the coast and inland. Those accustomed to the vast number of gulls along the coasts of temperate regions will be disappointed in the scarcity of bird life on a tropical coast. Of about 51 species of gill in the world, only one has been found on the coastof Borneo, and then only as a rare winter visitor. (Smythies, The Birds of Borneo, 1999)

Terns and Noddies
Terns are small to moderate sized, slim, graceful seabirds with narrow wings and usually buoyant flight, typically flocking at both breeding colonies and when foraging. Although terns are conspicuous along rivers in the subtropics, on the Ganges or Irrawaddy for example, only one species (the White-winged Tern) occurs along Bornean rivers. The various species are easy to recognise in breeding plumage, but at other times they lose most of their distinctive features and identification in the field becomes much more difficult. The sexes are always alike and the young usually resemble the winter plumage of the adults, but have the upperparts mottled with brown. The tail is forked, in some species deeply and in others less so, except in the noddies, which have a wedge-shaped tail with a notch at the end.

They are better represented in Borneo than are gulls, with 15 of the world's 44 species.(Smythies, The Birds of Borneo, 1999)

Skuas
worldwide family of dark-backed seabirds, rather similar in appearance to gulls but some are characterized by elongated central tail feathers. They are notorious for their aggressive harrying of other seabirds, forcing them to drop or regurgitate their food. They are rare. (John Mackinnon, The Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali, 1993)

Photographed Species

Scientific Name	Common Name	Link
(Chlidonias leucopterus)	White-winged Tern	Image
(Chlidonias hybrida)	Whiskered Tern	Image
(Gelochelidon nilotica)	Gull-billed Tern	Image
(Hydroprogne caspia)	Caspian Tern	Image
(Larus ridibundus)	Black-headed Gull	Image
(Onychoprion aleutica)	Aleutian Tern	Image
(Sternula albifrons)	Little Tern	Image
(Sterna hirundo)	Common Tern	Image
(Thalasseus bengalensis)	Lesser Crested Tern	Image
(Thalasseus bergii)	Greater Crested Tern	Image