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Black Tern

Chlidonias niger ORDER: CHARADRIIFORMES FAMILY: LARIDAE

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

A small dark, graceful tern of freshwater marshes, the Black Tern eats insects as well as fish.

Gull-like

Small, dark tern.
In breeding plumage dark head and chest and gray wings are distinctive.
In nonbreeding plumage, head and underside white, wings gray, and dark spot behind eye and dusky crown and nape.

Similar to nonbreeding adult, but with pale scaling on back.

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In breeding plumage, nothing else quite looks like it. In nonbreeding plumage other terns do not have gray wings and gray rump, or dark smudges on the sides of the breast.