Birds of the World - Onychoprion


Aleutian Tern (Onychoprion aleuticus) Vulnerable Range: PAL, NA: North Pacific coasts from Sakhalin, Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka through Aleutian Is., and w to sw Alaska Cape Nome, Alaska, United States
Photograph by Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.


Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus melanopterus) Range: TrO: widespread tropical and subtropical is., mostly near continents (except e Polynesia and Hawaiian Is. and other remote is.) Homestead, Florida,
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Normally seen far from shore, often resting on floating objects. The Bridled Tern is smaller than the slightly larger Sooty Tern, and has grey-brown and not black wings.


Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus fuscatus) Range: TrO: widespread in all tropical and subtropical oceans Homestead, Florida,
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Normally seen far from shore, often resting on floating objects. Compare to Bridled Tern. There are millions of Sooty Tern in the world, and there are records at inland bodies of water as well.

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Spectacled Tern (Onychoprion lunatus) Range: PO: sw to c tropical Pacific Ocean: n Mariana, Phoenix, Line, Tuamotu, Marquesas, American Samoa, Northwestern Hawaiian Is., islets off Kauai and Oahu (main Hawaiian Is.) and Johnston Atoll (s of Hawaii)