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Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Thalasseus sandvicensis

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

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The Sandwich Tern is a large, very pale tern with a slim black bill tipped yellow and a shaggy black crest, which recedes to a white forehead in late summer. It breeds in dense colonies on coasts and islands across Europe to the Caspian Sea and winters along the Mediterranean and the coasts of Africa and South Asia. It plunge-dives for fish and is noisy, with a grating “kirrik” call.

Did you know?

  • Its name comes from the town of Sandwich, where it was first described.
  • Its genus name Thalasseus comes from the Greek for “sea”.

Voice

Sound

About the species

Identification

A largish tern with pale grey upperparts and white underparts. In summer it has a black cap with a short, shaggy crest; from late summer to winter the forehead turns white. The long, slim black bill has a yellow tip. It is larger than Common and Arctic Terns but clearly smaller than Caspian Tern; the yellow-tipped black bill is a good mark. The call is a loud, rasping “kirrik”.

Family

Sternidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

white, grey, black, yellow

About the habitat

Open coasts, sandy and shingle beaches and offshore islands for breeding; coastal seas outside the breeding season.

Diet

Mainly small marine fish such as sand eels and sprats, caught by plunge-diving, almost always at sea.

Behaviour

Breeds in very dense colonies on bare ground on coasts and islands, laying one or two eggs in a scrape. It is not very aggressive towards predators and often nests among Black-headed Gulls or Arctic Terns for protection. Males court females by offering fish. It is a long-distance migrant.

Sources

Photo: MPF, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2021-07-10 Thalasseus sandvicensis, St Marys Island, Northumberland 01.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC1176900, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1176900

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

See also