Thalasseus bengalensis
Silhouette: JJ Harrison (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern sighting in Abu Dhabi on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 80th most-seen of the 159 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July–August and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern in Abu Dhabi on a given day, against under 5% in September and November–June, the lowest months.
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.
15th of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Lesser Crested Tern sightings, Abu Dhabi ranks 15th at under 5%. The best odds are in Zanzibar City (Tanzania, about 40%), Dakar (Senegal, about 30%) and Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 20%).
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Lesser Crested Tern that you can see in Abu Dhabi (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Black-headed Gull (about 30%), Lesser Black-backed Gull (about 10%) and White-cheeked Tern (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Crested Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Abu Dhabi (37 verified sightings), 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.
