Australian Tern (Gelochelidon macrotarsa)
About the Australian Tern
The Australian tern or Australian gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon macrotarsa) is a tern in the family Laridae, native to Australia. The genus name is from Ancient Greek gelao, "to laugh", and khelidon, "swallow". John Gould described Sterna macrotarsa from a specimen held at King's College, London in 1837. Although first described as a species, throughout most of the 20th and early 21st centuries it was generally considered to be a subspecies of the gull-billed tern, but was re-elevated to species status by the IOC World Bird List in 2019 in its Version 9.2.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 3 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-ND. 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, Indonesia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Gull-billed TernGelochelidon niloticarecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.