Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans)
About the Elegant Tern
The elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans) is a tern in the family Laridae. It breeds on the Pacific coast of southern California in the United States and western Mexico, and migrates south to Peru, Ecuador and Chile for the northern winter; in the late summer and fall, some also disperse north to Oregon and more rarely Washington. This species breeds in very dense colonies on coasts and islands, including Isla Rasa and Montague Island in Mexico, as well as South Bay Salt Works (San Diego) and Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in California. Exceptionally, vagrants can occur inland on suitable large freshwater lakes.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 111 recordings for this species: 5 CC BY-NC-ND · 1 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 Chile, Mexico, Panama, Peru 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.