Svalbard Arctic terns get geo-locators, names

This video says about itself:

The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) makes an incredible migration each year. These small birds travel distances of more than 50,000 miles, from pole to pole, crossing through temperate and tropical regions along the way. Carsten Egevang used geo-locator tags to track ten of these terns, and he shares their story with us in this tour.

Translated from the blog of Maarten Loonen, Arctic tern researcher at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard:

Naming terns

July 20, 2013

Thanks to the crowd funding campaign rugsteuntstern.nl I can catch terns and equip them with a geo-locator. In total, 35 people have paid an amount enabling them to name a tern.

Fortunately, we were able to catch exactly 35 terns. It was not easy because it was a disastrous year in terms of breeding success. There were very few terns breeding and the bravest ones were often robbed of their eggs by an Arctic fox within a few days.

However, here we proudly present [photos of] 35 named terns. They may look very similar, but they are all special individuals anyway.

Arctic terns in Alaska: here.

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