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Common Tern

Common Tern

Sterna hirundo

Identify the Common Tern by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Common Tern is a slim, agile tern that breeds across temperate and subarctic Europe, Asia and North America and winters on tropical and subtropical coasts. Breeding adults are pale grey above with a black cap, orange-red legs and an orange-red bill with a dark tip. It breeds in noisy colonies on beaches, islets and lake shores and readily uses artificial rafts. It closely resembles the Arctic Tern.

Did you know?

  • Its name hirundo, “swallow”, and the old nickname “sea swallow” refer to its forked tail.
  • It readily nests on man-made rafts and gravel roofs.

Voice

Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A white tern with greyish wings and a black cap; the legs are red and the bill orange-red with a black tip. At rest the wingtips reach the tip of the tail (a good difference from Arctic Tern), and in flight only the inner primaries are translucent, with a dark wedge on the outer wing. In winter the forehead is white and the bill dark.

Family

Sternidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

grey, white, black, red

About the habitat

Coasts, archipelagos, estuaries, lakes, wide rivers and reservoirs; it nests on sparsely vegetated sand, gravel or rocky islets, floating rafts and even gravel roofs.

Diet

Mainly small fish caught by hovering and plunge-diving, in fresh and salt water; also crustaceans and insects, especially when fish are scarce.

Behaviour

Flies low over water, hovers and then plunges to seize prey just below the surface. It breeds colonially on open, flat ground and fiercely defends nests and chicks with loud calls and dive-bombing. In courtship the male parades with a fish and offers it to the female. Both parents incubate and feed the chicks.

Sources

Photo: MPF, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014-05-18 Sterna hirundo, Killingworth Lake, Northumberland 04.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC731701, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/731701

Sound: Jingwen Sun, XC792900, CC BY 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/792900

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_tern

See also