Common Tern
Sterna hirundo
Often called 'sea swallows,' these birds perform incredible trans-equatorial migrations, traveling thousands of miles between breeding and wintering grounds.
- Scientific name
- Sterna hirundo
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Charadriiformes › Laridae › Sterna
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Coastal beaches, rocky islands, and inland freshwater lakes or marshes.
- Diet
- Primarily small fish such as sand eels and herring, supplemented by insects and crustaceans.
- Range
- North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa
- Size
- 31–35 cm in length with a wingspan of 77–80 cm.
- Lifespan
- 9-12 years on average, though some individuals live over 25 years.
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat loss from coastal development, predation by invasive species, and rising sea levels flooding nest sites.
- Safe to approach?
- Generally harmless but highly defensive near nesting sites. They may dive-bomb or 'poop-bomb' perceived intruders. Maintain a 50-meter distance from colonies. If dive-bombed, move away quickly; if pecked, wash the area with soap and water.
The common tern ( Sterna hirundo ) is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red...
Photo: Bill Keim, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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