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Abstract
The incidence of extra‐pair paternity and egg dumping was investigated in a colony of common terns (Sterna hirundo), a colonial seabird, in the Venetian lagoon. Ten families were sampled and multilocus DNA fingerprinting analysis was performed. No indication of extra‐pair paternity or egg dumping was found in any of the families. The results are discussed in the light of life‐history strategies, the benefits of coloniality and the evolution of adoption behaviour in the species.