An Assortment of Terns

Back in June, we roadtripped down the West Coast and observed six different tern species — including two lifers for us!

First up is a tern new-to-us — the super small Least Tern! We spotted one hunting at the Ventura Settling Ponds and quickly became smitten with this diminutive species, not much larger than an American Robin. If we started a petition to the American Ornithological Society to change the species name of Least Tern to “Teeny Tiny Ternlet” — would you sign it???

Listen here to a quick snippet of this Least Tern making squeaky calls as it foraged above the pond.

We had a lovely visit to the bird-rich San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine. Notably, an island in one of the ponds hosted a large group of resting Caspian Terns and their youngsters. But wait — that’s a handful of Black Skimmers mixed in as well!!

Caspian Terns are a noisy bunch, and in this recording you can hear many giving their most common call — a rather harsh, low-pitched, scratchy shriek.

The last tern hotspot of our roadtrip was a doozy — the Bayshore Bikeway along Imperial Beach in San Diego where we observed four different species. First up was a brand new species for us — the Gull-billed Tern, whose all-black bill noticeably stuck out from the rest of the terns. Along the West Coast of the United States, San Diego and the Salton Sea are the only breeding spots for this tern.

Next up is one of our smaller terns, the Forster’s Tern. The tail streamers are a particularly neat feature of this species. Check out these beautiful flight silhouettes of the Forster’s Tern.

Though Black Skimmers aren’t terns, they are part of the larger family of birds called Laridae (consisting of gulls, terns, noddies, and skimmers). We were lucky to see a few more of these weird and wonderful birds nearby while tern-spotting.

Last up are two tern species that can be difficult to distinguish from each other — the Royal Tern and the Elegant Tern. Both have solid orange beaks, but the Elegant Tern’s beak tends to be longer, thinner, and sometimes yellower and droopier. The Elegant Tern is also a smaller bird than the Royal Tern.

Not only are the Royal and Elegant Terns hard to distinguish visually — they also can be difficult to distinguish by voice as well. Here’s a recording of both species vocalizing together.

Stay tuned for all the other non-tern species we observed on our roadtrip!