Forster's Tern
Sterna forsteri
Also known as: Foster's Tern
Habitat
Aquatic
Diet
VertFishScav
Active Time
Diurnal
Size
149 g
About This Species
Look for this slender tern over coastal marshes, estuaries, and inland wetlands across North America, where it hovers before plunge-diving for small fish. It nests in dense colonies on marsh islands and dredge-spoil sites, often alongside other terns and gulls, and is most conspicuous and active through the summer breeding season, when adults carry fish back to noisy colonies. It winters along warmer coastlines, where it can still be seen fishing over open water.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Nesting colonies are extremely sensitive to disturbance, since flushed adults leave eggs and chicks exposed to sun and predators within minutes, so colonies should be viewed from a substantial distance and never entered on foot or by boat during the breeding season.
- Terns and their nests are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States and comparable law in Canada.
- Fishing birds away from colonies can be watched more casually from a normal birdwatching distance.
LCAvesCharadriiformesLaridae
Seasonal Activity
1,639,443 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
Traits
- Diet
- VertFishScav
- Foraging
- Aquatic
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Body mass
- 149 g
Photo
(c) Bert Filemyr, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Bert Filemyr
CC-BY-NC-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.