Anous is a genus of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s in the tern

Tern

Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...

 family. The genus as presently described consists of three species (or two):

• Brown Noddy
  Brown Noddy
  The Brown Noddy or Common Noddy is a seabird from the tern family. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related Black Noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black...
  
   or Common Noddy, Anous stolidus
• Black Noddy
  Black Noddy
  The Black Noddy or White-capped Noddy is a seabird from the tern family. It resembles the closely related Brown or Common Noddy , but is smaller with darker plumage, a whiter cap, a longer, straighter beak and shorter tail...
  
  , Anous minutus
• Lesser Noddy
  Lesser Noddy
  The Lesser Noddy , also known as the Sooty Noddy, is a species of tern in the Sternidae family.It is found in Comoros, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates.- References :...
  
  , Anous tenuirostris. Lesser Noddy is sometimes considered a subspecies of Black Noddy.

This genus forms part of the Laridae group (gulls, terns and skimming birds).
These birds are dark-plumaged terns which inhabit tropical oceans. They nest in colonies.

The female lays one egg in each breeding season.

These birds feed on small fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, which they catch by plunge diving.

Etymology

Anous is Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 for "stupid" or "unmindful" (Harrison, 1990; see also nous

Nous

Nous , also called intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, very close in meaning to intuition...

); stolidus means "impassive" in Latin. These birds are often unwary and were well known to sailors for their apparent indifference to hunters or predators. They find safety in enormous numbers.