Roseate tern and the bill black. Juvenile roseate terns have a scaly appearance like juvenile Sandwich Terns, but a fuller black cap than that species. This species breeds in colonies on coasts and islands, at times with other seabirds. In Australian territory, it has been recorded nesting alongside the black-naped tern ("S. sumatrana"), lesser crested tern ("Thalasseus bengalensis"), crested tern ("T. bergii"), fairy tern ("Sternula nereis"), bridled tern ("Onychoprion anaethetus") and silver gull ("Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae"). It nests in a ground scrape, often in a hollow or under dense vegetation, and lays one or two (rarely three) eggs. It is less defensive of
Roseate tern Roseate tern The roseate tern ("Sterna dougallii") is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name "Sterna" is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and the specific "dougallii" refers to Scottish physician and collector Dr Peter McDougall (1777–1814). "Roseate" refers to the bird's pink breast in breeding plumage. English naturalist George Montagu described the roseate tern in 1813. Genetically, it is most closely related to the white-fronted tern ("S. striata"), with their common ancestor a sister lineage to the black-naped tern ("S. sumatrana"). This species has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in bill colour and minor plumage