Elegant Tern
Introduction
An orange-billed relative of Sandwich Tern, the Elegant Tern's core breeding range is Baja California, Mexico. The species normally winters on western South American coasts, which explains why this is an extremely rare visitor to Britain & Ireland.
Key Stats
Status and Trends
Conservation Status
Population Size
Population Change
Population trends of this scarce species are not routinely monitored.
Distribution
This vagrant is too rarely reported to map distribution.
Distribution Change
This vagrant is too rarely reported to map distribution change.
Seasonality
Elegant Tern is a very rare summer vagrant.
Weekly pattern of occurrence
The graph shows when the species is present in the UK, with taller bars indicating a higher likelihood of encountering the species in appropriate regions and habitats.
Movement
Britain & Ireland movement
Biology
Survival and Longevity
Survival is shown as the proportion of birds surviving from one year to the next and is derived from bird ringing data. It can also be used to estimate how long birds typically live.
Classification, names and codes
Classification and Codes
- Order: Charadriiformes
- Family: Laridae
- Scientific name: Thalasseus elegans
- Authority: Gambel, 1849
- BTO 5-letter code: ELETE
- Euring code number: 6120
Alternate species names
- Catalan: xatrac elegant
- Czech: rybák západní
- Danish: Aztekerterne
- Dutch: Sierlijke Stern
- Estonian: kalifornia tiir
- Finnish: kaunotiira
- French: Sterne élégante
- German: Schmuckseeschwalbe
- Hungarian: pompás csér
- Icelandic: Skrautþerna
- Irish: Geabhróg Ghalánta
- Italian: Sterna elegante
- Latvian: slaidais cekulzirinš
- Lithuanian: grakšcioji žuvedra
- Norwegian: Langnebbterne
- Polish: rybitwa kalifornijska
- Portuguese: garajau-elegante
- Slovak: rybár pôvabný
- Slovenian: prelestna cigra
- Spanish: Charrán elegante
- Swedish: aztektärna
- Welsh: Môr-wennol Gain
