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Sandwich Tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
20.6056, -87.0939
Field Notes
Description:
The Sandwich Tern is a medium-large tern with grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow-tipped black bill and a shaggy black crest which becomes less extensive in winter with a white crown. This is a medium-large tern, 37–43 cm (15–17 in) long with an 85–97 cm (33–38 in) wingspan, which is unlikely to be confused within most of its range, although the South American race could be confused with the Elegant Tern. The Sandwich Tern's thin sharp bill is black with a yellow tip, except in the yellow or orange billed South American race. Its short legs are black. Its upperwings are pale grey and its underparts white, and this tern looks very pale in flight, although the primary flight feathers darken during the summer.
Habitat:
Occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations. BREEDS: locally on Atlantic coast of North America from Maryland or Virginia to South Carolina or northern Florida, on the Gulf Coast from central Florida to southern Texas; Alacran Reef off Yucatan Peninsula; on various islands, Bahamas (Sprunt 1984) to northern South America (islands off coast of Venezuela from Netherlands Antilles to Soldada Rock off northern Trinidad; also French Guiana and coast of northern Argentina), including Puerto Rico (off Culebra) and the Virgin Islands (Anegada and off St. Thomas). Old World: northern Europe on coast of Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Denmark, south coast of Norway, and East and West Germany; along Mediterranean Sea in Spain, the Camargue of southern France, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, and southeastern Tunisia; islands of Black Sea; eastern and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea. NORTHERN WINTER: north to Gulf Coast, south through Atlantic-Gulf-Caribbean region to southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northern Argentina; Pacific coast from Oaxaca to Ecuador and Peru; Old World.
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