The pale cap gives this dark seabird away. A coconut crown, a shrub or bare ground can all serve as its nursery.
- Local names
- ‘Oio
- Habitat
- Motu and shore
- Other names
- Noddi brun
About this species
Brown noddies are dark brown with a pale grey crown. Males and females look much alike, with a wingspan of about 79–86 cm. Widespread in French Polynesia, they may feed as far as 50 km from shore, taking small fish and cephalopods at the surface. They can even catch flying fish in the air.
On Tetiaroa they nest throughout the atoll, placing a simple, flat platform of plant material on the ground, in a shrub or in a coconut palm. The guide records laying in May–June and September–October. A single pale pink egg, marked with red and measuring about 5.3 × 3.6 cm, is incubated by both parents for roughly 34 days.
Adults watch the chick closely: great frigatebirds may take unattended young. First flight comes at around 35 days, but parents can continue feeding the young bird for up to another 100 days.
An estimated 10,000–20,000 pairs were recorded in the guide’s 2014 account. In the Polynesian traditions it cites, ‘Ōio embodied the gods of the air.
