Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida)
About the Whiskered Tern
The whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow". The specific hybridus is Latin for hybrid; Peter Simon Pallas thought it might be a hybrid of white-winged black tern and common tern, writing "Sterna fissipes [Chlidonias leucopterus] et Hirundine [Sterna hirundo] natam". This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details. The tropical forms are resident, but European and Asian birds winter south to Africa and the Indian subcontinent. A tagged whiskered tern was spotted at Manakudi Bird Sanctuary, Kanniyakumari District of Tamil Nadu, India in the month of April 2021.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 403 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-ND · 3 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Black TernChlidonias nigerrecording
- Black-fronted TernChlidonias albostriatusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.