West African Crested Tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis)
About the West African Crested Tern
The West African crested tern (Thalasseus albididorsalis) is a bird species in the family Laridae. Until 2020 it was considered a subspecies of the New World royal tern, Thalasseus maximus. The West African crested tern was long thought to be a subspecies of royal tern. A study published in 2005 showed that it is more closely related to the lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis), and a 2017 publication confirmed and expanded on those results. The International Ornithologists' Union accepted it as a full species on the publication of version 10.1 in January 2020, and the American Ornithological Society followed suit on 30 June 2020.
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: 5 CC BY-NC-SA · 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 Senegal in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Chinese Crested TernThalasseus bernsteinirecording
- Greater Crested TernThalasseus bergiirecording
- Sandwich TernThalasseus sandvicensisrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.