Thalasseus bengalensis
Silhouette: JJ Harrison (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The lesser crested tern (Thalasseus bengalensis) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek Thalasseus, "fisherman" from thalassa, "sea". The specific bengalensis means "of Bengal", the type locality, historically referring to Bangladesh and part of Northeast India.
It breeds in subtropical coastal parts of the world mainly from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific, and Australia, with a significant population on the southern coast of the Mediterranean on two islands off the Libyan coast. It is an occasional vagrant to Europe, where it has been known to breed in pure and mixed (with Sandwich tern) pairs. The Australian birds are probably sedentary, but other populations are migratory, wintering south to South Africa.
Pale grey above (only marginally darker than Sandwich tern); slightly larger. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 4 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Jeddah | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 6 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 7 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Dammam | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 9 | Algiers | 🇩🇿 Algeria | |
| 10 | Kollam | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern sighting in Cape Range on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 39th most-seen of the 84 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–May and July–November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern in Cape Range on a given day, against about 10% in June and December–January, the lowest months. February has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Crested Tern sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Lesser Crested Tern sightings, Cape Range ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Ningaloo Marine Park (Australia, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Crested Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Range (39 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
