Royal Tern

Royal Tern, breeding plumage

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About the map

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Royal Tern, nonbreeding plumage

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Food
7. Behavior
8. Reproduction
9. Conservation Status
10. Other Names

A large, orange-billed tern, the Royal Tern is found only along ocean beaches.

Cool Facts

• The Royal Tern makes its nest scrape on the ground on low-lying islands. The pair defecates directly on the nest rim, perhaps to reinforce the nest against flooding. After a few weeks, the nest rim hardens.
• Young Royal Terns leave the nest scrape within one day after hatching and congregate together in a group known as a crèche. Eventually all of the chicks in a colony come to the crèche, which can have thousands of chicks ranging in age from two to 35 days old. A pair of Royal Terns will feed only their own chick, and manage to find it in the crowd, probably by recognizing its call.

Description

• Size: 45-50 cm (18-20 in)
• Wingspan: 125-135 cm (49-53 in)
• Weight: 350-450 g (12.36-15.89 ounces)

• Large tern.
• Slender orange bill (from yellow to reddish).
• Short, forked tail.
• Black in a narrow, shaggy band around back of head; forehead white. (Complete black cap held only briefly during breeding.)
• Mostly white all over, with some dark in wingtips.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to nonbreeding adult, but bill smaller and pale yellow, back with variable amounts of dark spotting, and wingtips darker.

Similar Species

• Larger and more robust than most other terns.
• Pointed orange bill and black cap distinguishes it from gulls.
• Caspian Tern larger and more robust, with broader wings, thicker and more blunt bright red bill, short, square tail only shallowly notched, a black or streaked forehead at all times, and lacks a shaggy crest.
• Elegant Tern is smaller, has a shaggier crest, and a more yellowish bill, or reddish with yellow tip.

Sound

Call a loud, rolling "keer-reet."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds along Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Florida, and along Gulf Coast to northern Mexico. Also in very southern California and western Mexico, and in scattered localities in Caribbean and South America. Also along coast of western Africa.

Winter Range

Winters along Pacific Coast from southern California to Peru, and along Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina southward to northern South America and throughout the Caribbean.

Food

Fish and shrimp.

Behavior

Foraging

Flies over water with bill pointing down; plunges into water to catch fish.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A scrape in ground. Nesting colonies occur on island beaches.

Egg Description

Whitish to brown, heavily spotted around large end.

Condition at Hatching

Eyes open. Covered with down and able to leave nest within one day.

Conservation Status

United States population appears stable.

Other Names

Sterne royale (French)
Charrán real, Gaviota real, Gaviotin real, Golondrina-marina real, Golondrina Tirra canalera, Pagaza real (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Buckley, P. A., and F. G. Buckley. 2002. Royal Tern (Sterna maxima). In The Birds of North America, No. 700 (A. Poole and F. Gill,eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.