Fairy Tern (Sternula nereis)
About the Fairy Tern
The fairy tern (Sternula nereis) is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is critically endangered. Fairy terns live in colonies along the coastlines and estuaries of Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, feeding largely on small, epipelagic schooling fishes, breeding in areas close to their feeding sites. They have a monogamous mating system, forming breeding pairs in which they mate, nest, and care for offspring. There are three subspecies: Australian fairy tern, Sternula nereis nereis (Gould, 1843) – breeds in Australia New Caledonian fairy tern, Sternula nereis exsul (Mathews, 1912) – breeds in New Caledonia
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 7 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-SA · 1 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, France, New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Little TernSternula albifronsrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.