Birds of Panama


Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri) Beaumaris Lake, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Breeding Forster's Tern resemble breeding Common Terns.
Photograph by dfaulder Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.


Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri) Non-breeding Forster's Tern's are easy to identify because of the black mask. Photo Credit: Rinus Baak/USFWS.
Photograph by U.S. Government employee (see below) Copyright and usage info This image is a work of a National Science Foundation employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.


Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) Delta Dunaja, Vadu, Romania
Photograph by Andrej Chudy Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share the file for commercial or non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.


Common Tern (Sterna hirundo hirundo) Jones Beach SP, Nassau County, New York, United States
Photograph by Graham Montgomery © All Rights Reserved.

In breeding plumage looks like a Forster's Tern, with black cap and orange and black bill. Look for black in the wings on the Common Tern, seen on some tips here. The Common Tern has a black bill in non-breeding plumage, and unlike other terns is often far out at sea, and not on the beach.