Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)
About the Common Tern
The common tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are several similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations.
A real field recording of the Common Tern. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 1,074 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Antarctic TernSterna vittataprofile
- Arctic TernSterna paradisaearecording
- Black-bellied TernSterna acuticaudaprofile
- Black-naped TernSterna sumatranaprofile
- Forster's TernSterna forsterirecording
- Kerguelen TernSterna virgataprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.