Thalasseus maximus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The royal tern (Thalasseus maximus) is a tern in the family Laridae. The species is endemic to the Americas, though vagrants have been identified in Europe. The royal tern was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Sterna maxima in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The royal tern is now placed in the genus Thalasseus that was erected by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822.
The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek θάλασσα (thálassa) meaning "sea". The specific epithet maximus is Latin for "greatest". The royal tern belongs to the class Aves and the order Charadriiformes. Charadriiformes includes seabirds and shorebirds of small to medium... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 2 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay | |
| 4 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 8 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Downtown Aquarium, Denver | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Royal Tern sighting in Havana on a given day, based on 663 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 19th most-seen of the 183 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Royal Tern in Havana on a given day, against about 20% in May and September, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Royal 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.
Yes
Of the 20 cities where we can rate Royal Tern sightings, Havana has the highest daily chance: about 30%. Next come San Diego (United States, about 20%) and Montevideo (Uruguay, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Royal Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Havana (663 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.
