Bird Description

Locally fairly common in suitable freshwater marshes in summer. Colonial. Migrants found anywhere, often with other tern species. Commonest offshore, often in flocks. Only regular 'marsh' tern, never dives, swoops down to pick food off surface, enhancing graceful but 'cute' image. Buoyant, bouncy flight. ID: Small, compact, with short tail and broad wings. Gray upperparts in all plumages noticeably darker than other regularly occurring terns. Ad br: striking black head and body bordered white - contrast striking at distance. Some white-faced in summer (2nd-s or beginning to molt). Late-summer molting birds blotchy black-and-white. Nonbr: pale underparts. Juv: similar to nonbr but have pale-fringed upperparts. 1st-s: as nonbr with mixture of old and new feathers (old outer primaries). At sea, distant tropical terns are much larger with different shape and relatively slow wingbeats.