About the Atlantic White Tern
The Atlantic white tern, also known as the common white tern, is a small seabird found in the Atlantic Ocean. It is sometimes known as the fairy tern, although this name is potentially confusing as it is also the common name of Sternula nereis. Other names for the species include angel tern and white noddy. The blue-billed white tern and the little white tern have sometimes been considered as subspecies of the Atlantic white tern.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
ID tip
The Atlantic white tern is 23–30 cm (9.1–11.8 in) long with a wingspan of 76–87 cm (30–34 in). It has pure white plumage, except for a dark streak along the shafts of the outer primary feathers in G. a. candida), a black eye accentuated by a narrow ring of black feathers round the eye, and a long black to bluish-black bill. The tail is shallowly forked, but like in the noddies, with the longest feathers the second-from outermost, not the outermost as in other terns. The legs are dark grey, to paler grey in G. a. leucopes and G. a. microrhyncha.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it lives
Recorded as a rare visitor in Taiwan, France, India, Bermuda, Panama, Mayotte, Chile, Mexico, Nauru.
When to see it
Peak activity in March · a resident species across most of its range
Easily confused with
Pallas's GullIchthyaetus ichthyaetusThis is a very large gull, being easily the world's largest black-headed gull and the third largest species of gull in the world, after the great black-backed gull and the glaucous gull.
Dolphin GullLeucophaeus scoresbiiThe dolphin gull, sometimes erroneously called the red-billed gull, is a gull native to southern Chile and Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.
Armenian GullLarus armenicusThe Armenian gull is a fairly large gull species, though it is on average the smallest of the "herring gull" complex.
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