Black Tern

Black Tern, adult, breeding plumage

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Black Tern, adult nonbreeding plumage

Black Tern, 1st year plumage

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Conservation Status
7. Other Names

A small dark, graceful tern of freshwater marshes, the Black Tern eats insects as well as fish.

Cool Facts

• The Black Tern is very social. It breeds in loose colonies and usually forages, roosts,and migrates in flocks of a few to more than 100 birds, occasionally up to tens of thousands.

Description

• Size: 23-26 cm (9-10 in)
• Wingspan: 57-60 cm (22-24 in)
• Weight: 50-60 g (1.77-2.12 ounces)

• Small, dark tern.
• In breeding plumage dark head and chest and gray wings are distinctive.
• In nonbreeding plumage, head and underside white, wings gray, and dark spot behind eye and dusky crown and nape.

• Undertail white.
• Eyes black.
• Bill black.
• Legs reddish black.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar.

Immature

Similar to nonbreeding adult, but with pale scaling on back.

Similar Species

• In breeding plumage, nothing else quite looks like it. In nonbreeding plumage other terns do not have gray wings and gray rump, or dark smudges on the sides of the breast.

Sound

Call a short "kik."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Summer Range

Breeds locally across Canada and northern United States, from Northwest Territories to New Brunswick, and central California to southern Indiana. Also in Eurasia.

Winter Range

Winters at sea and along shore of both coasts of Central and South America. Also along African coasts.

Conservation Status

Populations declining, especially at southern edge of range.

Other Names

Guifette noire (French)
Gaviotin negro, Charrán negro, Fumarel negro (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Dunn, E. H., and D. J. Agro. 1995. Black Tern (Chlidonias niger). In The Birds of North America, No. 147 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.