Range Description

Sterna nereis occurs in Australia (subspecies nereis), New Caledonia (to France) (exsul) and northern New Zealand (davisae). In Australia, subspecies nereis may number less than 5,000 mature individuals at up to 170 sites, with less than 1,600 pairs in Western Australia, a few hundred pairs in each of Tasmania and South Australia and just a few pairs in Victoria^5,6,7,8. Though it may be stable in Western Australia, numbers elsewhere in Australia have declined rapidly during the last thirty years. In New Zealand, davisae plummeted to three pairs in 1983 but, due to intensive conservation efforts has increased and in 1998, totalled 25-30 birds and 8-10 pairs over three sites, and in 2006, 35-40 pairs^1,2,9. In New Caledonia, exul numbers 100-200 pairs, but was formerly much more abundant^3,10. One small population in the Southern Lagoon of New Caledonia may be increasing¹¹.