Little tern

{{Speciesbox

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author1=BirdLife International |year=2019 |title=Sternula albifrons |volume=2019 |amends=2018 |page=e.T22694656A155476219 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22694656A155476219.en |access-date=1 September 2024}}

| image = Крячок малий.jpg

| image_caption = Adult S. a. albifrons in breeding plumage, Lyubikovichi, Ukraine

| genus = Sternula

| species = albifrons

| authority = (Pallas, 1764)

| synonyms =

Sterna albifrons (protonym)
Sterna minuta {{small|Linnaeus, 1766}}

|synonyms_ref =

| range_map = SternulaAlbifronsIUCN.png

| range_map_caption = Range of S. albifrons (Compiled by: BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World, 2019){{leftlegend|#00FF00|Breeding|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#008000|Resident|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#00FFFF|Passage|outline=gray}} {{leftlegend|#007FFF|Non-breeding|outline=gray}}

}}

The little tern (Sternula albifrons) is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Sterna albifrons.{{cite book | last1=Peters | first1=James Lee | author-link=James L. Peters | year=1934 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 2 | volume=2 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=340 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483153 }}{{cite journal | last=Sherborn | first=C. Davies | year=1905 | title=The new species of birds in Vroeg's catalogue, 1764 | journal=Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections | volume=47 | pages=332–341 [339] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8812106 }} Includes a transcript of the 1764 text.{{cite journal | last1=Rookmaaker | first1=L.C. | last2=Pieters | first2=F.F.J.M. | year=2000 | title=Birds in the sales catalogue of Adriaan Vroeg (1764) described by Pallas and Vosmaer | journal=Contributions to Zoology | volume=69 | issue=4 | pages=271–277 | doi=10.1163/18759866-06904005 | url=http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/571856 | doi-access=free }} It was moved to the genus Sternula when the genus Sterna was restricted to the larger typical terns.{{cite journal|last1=Bridge|first1=E. S.|last2=Jones|first2= A. W.|last3=Baker|first3= A. J.|year=2005|url=http://www2.hawaii.edu/~khayes/Journal_Club/summer2006/Bridge_et_al_2005_MPE.pdf|title=A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720204025/http://www2.hawaii.edu/~khayes/Journal_Club/summer2006/Bridge_et_al_2005_MPE.pdf |archivedate=20 July 2006 |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume=35|issue=2 |pages=459–469|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2004.12.010 |pmid=15804415 }} The genus name Sternula is a diminutive of Sterna, 'tern', while the specific name albifrons is from Latin albus, 'white', and frons, 'forehead'.{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher= Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages = 38, 365}}

Distribution

This bird breeds on the coasts and inland waterways of temperate and tropical Europe, Asia, north and west Africa, and eastern Australia. It is strongly migratory, wintering in the subtropical and tropical oceans as far south as South Africa and Australia.

Subspecies

There are four subspecies.

The nominate S. a. albifrons occurs in Europe to North Africa and western Asia
S. a. guineae of western Africa
S. a. sinensis in eastern Asia (SE Russia to Japan, SE Asia, Philippines) south to New Guinea and northern Australia
S. a. placens on the east coast of Australia and Tasmania.{{cite web |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/gulls/ |title=Noddies, skimmers, gulls, terns, skuas, auks |website=IOC World Bird List |version =v 14.1 |editor-last1=Gill |editor-first1= F. |editor-last2=Donsker|editor-first2=D.|editor-last3=Rasmussen |editor-first3=P. |date=January 2024 |access-date=26 June 2024 }}Higgins, P.J. & S.J.J.F. Davies (eds) 1996. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3: Snipe to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. {{ISBN|0-19-553070-5}}

The former North American subspecies (S. a. antillarum) and Red Sea subspecies S. a. saundersi are now considered to be separate species, the least tern (Sternula antillarum) and Saunders's tern (Sternula saundersi), respectively.

Description

This is a small tern, 21–25 cm long with a 41–47 cm wingspan. It is not likely to be confused with other species, apart from fairy tern and Saunders's tern, because of its size and white forehead in breeding plumage. Its thin sharp bill is yellow with a black tip and its legs are also yellow. In winter, the forehead is more extensively white, the bill is black and the legs duller.

Habitat and behavior

The little tern breeds in colonies on gravel or shingle coasts and islands. It lays two to four eggs on the ground. Like all white terns, it is defensive of its nest and young and will attack intruders.

Like most other white terns, the little tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, either in coastal saline environments, or inland, along larger rivers. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.

The call is a loud and distinctive creaking noise.

Populations on European rivers

At the beginning of the 19th century the little tern was a common bird of European shores, rivers and wetlands, but in the 20th century populations of coastal areas decreased because of habitat loss, pollution and human disturbance.

The loss of inland populations has been even more severe, since due to dams, river regulation and sediment extraction it has lost most of its former habitats. The little tern population has declined or become extinct in many European countries, and former breeding places on large rivers like the Danube, Elbe and Rhine ceased. Nowadays, only a few river systems in Europe possess suitable habitats; the Loire/Allier in France, the Vistula/Odra in Poland, the Po/Ticino in Italy, the Daugava in Latvia, the Nemunas in Lithuania, the Sava in Croatia and the Drava in Hungary and Croatia. The status of the little tern on the rivers Tagus and lower Danube is uncertain.

The Drava population is one of the most threatened. Old-fashioned water management practices, including river regulation and sediment extraction, endanger the remaining pairs. Only 15 pairs still breed on extensive sand or gravel banks along the border between Hungary and Croatia. The WWF and its partners are involved in working for the protection of this bird and this unique European river ecosystem. The little tern is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Gallery

File:Sternula albifrons Tokyo Bay 1.jpg|S. a. sinensis in flight, Tokyo Bay, Japan

File:Sternula albifrons - Boat Harbour.jpg|S. a. placens, Boat Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

File:Little tern(Sternula albifrons) 6.jpg|S. a. albifrons in winter plumage, Kannur, Kerala, India

File:Little Tern chick, Hampshire, UK (49986661853).jpg|S. a. albifrons, recently hatched chick, Hampshire, UK

File:Sterna albifrons MWNH 0425.JPG|Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden