Scientific name: Sterna sandvicensis Latham, 1787
Bird group: Gulls and Terns
Field characters. 41 cm. Differs from Common Tern in larger size, black bill with yellow tip (sometimes difficult to see), black legs, obvious crest, much whiter plumage and shallower tail fork. Back and upperwings are light grey and outer primaries darker, forming a diamond-shaped dark grey panel. In later summer and throughout winter forehead white. In flight, looks as though the wings are exactly in the middle of the body. Juvenile has scaly, brown-barred upperparts, a dusky cap with almost no crest, and a shorter bill than adults without a yellow tip. Resembles Gull-billed Tern but slimmer with a more graceful flight, longer and more slender bill, pointed wingtips (more rounded in Gull-billed Tern), white rump and tail (grey in Gull-billed Tern), different dark pattern on wing-tip (Gull-billed Tern has dark trailing edge to primaries), and different voice. Likes to breed near Black-headed Gull colonies.
Voice. Characteristic 'kirrik'.
Distribution. Scarce, but locally common. Summer visitor.
Habitat. Exclusively coastal. Nests in salt marshes and dunes, sometimes in huge colonies.
Food. Marine fish, especially sand-eels.