Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis)
About the Lesser Crested Tern
The lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, "fisherman" from thalassa, "sea". The specific bengalensis means "of Bengal", the type locality, historically referring to Bangladesh and part of Northeast India. It breeds in subtropical coastal parts of the world mainly from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific, and Australia, with a significant population on the southern coast of the Mediterranean on two islands off the Libyan coast. It is an occasional vagrant to Europe, where it has been known to breed in pure and mixed (with Sandwich tern) pairs. The Australian birds are probably sedentary, but other populations are migratory, wintering south to South Africa.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 49 recordings for this species: 2 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, India, Indonesia, Madagascar 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.