How to Identify aLeast Tern
Sternula antillarum · 8.3–9.1 in (21–23 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Pale gray above and white below with a black cap broken by a white forehead wedge, and a yellow black-tipped bill. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male in the field.
Male photo: Paul Danese / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Very small — barely bigger than a robin
- White triangular patch on the forehead cutting into the black cap
- Yellow bill
- Rapid shallow wingbeats, hovering frequently
Similar species
What it sounds like
A sharp, high, repeated "kip kip" and a scolding "zreep".
Behaviour that gives it away
Nests in a bare scrape on open sand and gravel, which puts colonies directly in the path of beachgoers and vehicles.
Habitat & range
Sandy beaches, river sandbars, salt flats and gravel rooftops.
When you'll see it
A summer visitor that arrives to breed in North America.
What it eats
Small fish and invertebrates caught by plunge-diving.
Did you know?
It increasingly nests on flat gravel rooftops, which mimic the open sandbars that development has taken away.
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