Editing Roseate tern (section)

==Behaviour and ecology==

===Food and feeding===
As with other ''Sterna'' terns, roseate tern feeds by plunge-diving for [[fish]], almost invariably from the sea; it is much more marine than allied terns, only rarely visiting freshwater lagoons on the coast to bathe and not fishing in fresh water. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by [[Arctic tern]]. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.

Unusual for a tern, the roseate tern shows some kleptoparasitic behaviour, stealing [[fish]] from other seabirds, at British colonies most often from [[Atlantic puffin|puffins]]. This habit greatly increases their food-collecting ability during bad weather when fish swim deeper, out of reach of plunge-diving terns, but still within reach of the deeper-diving Puffins.

===Breeding===
This species breeds in colonies on coasts and islands, at times with other seabirds. In Australian colonies, it has been recorded nesting alongside the [[black-naped tern]] (''S. sumatrana''), [[lesser crested tern]] (''Thalasseus bengalensis''), [[greater crested tern]] (''T. bergii''), [[fairy tern]] (''Sternula nereis''), [[bridled tern]] (''Onychoprion anaethetus'') and [[silver gull]] (''Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae'').<ref name="sprat">{{cite web|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=817|title=Sterna dougallii — Roseate Tern|author=Department of the Environment |date=2015|work=Species Profile and Threats Database|publisher=Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government|access-date=15 August 2015|location=Canberra, Australian Capital Territory}}</ref> 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 its nest and young than other white terns, often relying on [[Arctic tern|Arctic]] and [[common tern]]s in the surrounding colony to defend them. In smaller colonies, they may rarely mate with these other tern species.

The [[white-bellied sea-eagle]] (''Haliaeetus leucogaster'') and silver gull are known to prey on eggs and chicks, while the [[turnstone]] (''Arenaria interpres''), [[black rat]] (''Rattus rattus'') and [[King's skink]] (''Egernia kingii'') are suspected predators.<ref name="sprat"/>

===Vocalisations===

The call of the roseate tern is a very characteristic ''chuwit'', similar to that of the [[spotted redshank]], quite distinct from other terns.