Elegant Tern

The Elegant Tern is a slim, crested tern named for its graceful proportions and elongated, drooping bill. Its breeding range is highly concentrated, with the great majority of the world population nesting at just a handful of colonies in the Gulf of California and off the coast of Baja California.

Appearance

Adults have pale gray upperparts, white underparts often washed with a pinkish tinge in fresh breeding plumage, a long slender bill that is orange-yellow with a slight downward droop, and a shaggy black crest that can be raised or flattened. The legs are black.

Key field marks

• Long, slender, drooping orange-yellow bill
• Shaggy black crest, often held raised
• Slimmer build and more slender bill than the similar Royal Tern
• Pale gray back and white underparts, sometimes with a pink flush

Similar species

Royal Tern is larger and bulkier with a thicker, straighter orange bill and less pronounced crest. Sandwich Tern is smaller with a black bill tipped yellow, quite different from the Elegant Tern's all-orange bill. Elegant Terns often associate with Royal and Sandwich Terns in mixed roosting flocks, requiring careful bill and structure comparison.

Habitat and range

Elegant Terns breed almost entirely on a few islands in the Gulf of California, most famously Isla Rasa, with smaller numbers nesting in southern California. After breeding, they disperse northward along the Pacific coast to forage in productive coastal waters before migrating south.

Migration

Most of the population winters along the Pacific coast of South America, particularly Peru and Chile, undertaking a long post-breeding migration. Because the breeding population is concentrated at very few sites, the species is considered vulnerable to disturbance, predation, and changes in food supply linked to El Niño events.

Behavior

Elegant Terns forage by plunge-diving from moderate heights into schools of small fish near the surface, often in loose flocks over productive coastal waters.

Voice

The call is a rolling, grating "kerrick" or "kirrik," similar to but distinguishable from the calls of Royal Tern with practice.

Nesting and breeding

They breed in dense colonies, laying a single egg on bare ground. Colony size and location can shift dramatically from year to year depending on food availability, particularly the abundance of small schooling fish influenced by ocean conditions.