Elegant Tern

The Elegant Tern is a striking medium-large tern named for its slim, graceful build and shaggy black crest. Its breeding range is remarkably concentrated, with the vast majority of the world population nesting at just a few island colonies in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

Appearance

Adults have pale grey upperparts, white underparts often tinged with a soft pink blush, a shaggy black crest that can be raised or flattened, and a long, slender, distinctly drooping orange to orange-yellow bill.

Key field marks

• Long, thin, drooping orange-yellow bill
• Shaggy black crest, longer and more pronounced than in the similar Royal Tern
• Pale grey upperparts, white underparts with a possible pink flush
• Medium-large size, smaller and slimmer than the Royal Tern

Similar species

The Elegant Tern is very similar to the Royal Tern, but is smaller and slimmer with a thinner, more strongly drooped bill and a longer, shaggier crest. Royal Terns have a heavier, straighter orange bill and a shorter crest.

Habitat and range

Elegant Terns breed almost entirely on a small number of islands in the Gulf of California, particularly Isla Rasa, with smaller colonies elsewhere along the Mexican Pacific coast. After breeding, birds disperse northward along the Pacific coast of the United States, particularly to California, before migrating south again to winter along the coasts of Central and South America, including Peru and Chile.

Because the global population is concentrated in so few breeding sites, the species is considered vulnerable to localized disturbances such as predation events, disease, or habitat disruption at its core colonies.

Behavior

Elegant Terns forage over nearshore waters, plunge-diving from moderate heights to catch small schooling fish such as anchovies and sardines. They are highly social, both while foraging and while roosting on beaches in large mixed flocks with other terns and gulls.

Voice

The call is a harsh, grating "kirrik" or rolling "korrick," similar to but distinguishable from the calls of Royal and Sandwich Terns.

Nesting and breeding

Elegant Terns nest in extremely dense colonies, sometimes with nests only a bill-length apart, laying a single egg in a shallow scrape on bare ground. Chicks form large creches shortly after hatching, a common strategy among crested terns to reduce individual predation risk.