Little Tern

Little Tern

Sternula albifrons

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Jakarta

In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%

10 Verified sightings at Jakarta
2,463 In all 24 parks From 2019 to 2026
August Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Little Tern

The little tern (Sternula albifrons) is a small seabird of the family Laridae. It is widely distributed breeding on the coasts and inland waterways of Europe, Asia, north and west Africa, and eastern Australia. It winters in the subtropical and tropical oceans as far south as South Africa and Australia.

The little tern was formally described in a sales catalogue by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 under the binomial name Sterna albifrons. The type locality is Holland in the Netherlands. The species was moved to the genus Sternula when the genus Sterna was restricted to the larger typical terns. The genus name Sternula is a diminutive of Sterna, 'tern', while the specific name albifrons is from Latin albus, 'white', and frons, 'forehead'.

Four subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:08

Mongolia · 2026

© Ding Li Yong · XC1142596 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Nocturnal flight call0:10

France · 2025

© Julien Piette · XC1033144 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Alarm call1:06

Ireland · 2024

© Anthony McGeehan · XC920894 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Bali Barat National Park 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~30%
2 Sundarbans National Park 🇮🇳 India
~20%
3 Yala National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~20%
4 Bako National Park 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~20%
5 West Coast National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~10%
6 iSimangaliso Wetland Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~10%
7 Camargue 🇫🇷 France
~10%
8 Doñana National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~10%
9 Noosa National Park 🇦🇺 Australia
~10%
10 Wilpattu National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
11 Satpura National Park 🇮🇳 India
~10%
12 Wadden Sea National Park 🇩🇪 Germany
~10%
13 Udawalawe National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
<5%
14 Komodo National Park 🇮🇩 Indonesia
<5%
15 Ningaloo Marine Park 🇦🇺 Australia
<5%
16 Cape Range 🇦🇺 Australia
<5%
17 Wilsons Promontory National Park 🇦🇺 Australia
<5%
18 Tangkoko Nature Reserve 🇮🇩 Indonesia
<5%
19 Raja Ampat 🇮🇩 Indonesia
<5%
20 Minneriya National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
<5%
21 Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary 🇲🇾 Malaysia
<5%
22 Daintree National Park 🇦🇺 Australia
<5%
23 Nagarhole National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
24 Monfragüe National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Denpasar 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~30%
2 Manama 🇧🇭 Bahrain
~30%
3 Makassar 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~20%
4 Dakar 🇸🇳 Senegal
~20%
5 Novosibirsk 🇷🇺 Russia
~10%
6 Kuching 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~10%
7 Naha 🇯🇵 Japan
~10%
8 Karachi 🇵🇰 Pakistan
~10%
9 Nizhny Novgorod 🇷🇺 Russia
~10%
10 Kuwait City 🇰🇼 Kuwait
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Little Tern in Jakarta?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern sighting in Jakarta on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 115th most-seen of the 138 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Little Tern in Jakarta?

August

In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern in Jakarta on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months. That is one of Jakarta's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain against 370 mm in February.

What time of day is best to see a Little Tern?

Between 9 am and noon

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little Tern sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Jakarta the best place to see a Little Tern?

39th of 60

Of the 60 cities where we can rate Little Tern sightings, Jakarta ranks 39th at under 5%. The best odds are in Denpasar (Indonesia, about 30%), Manama (Bahrain, about 30%) and Makassar (Indonesia, about 20%).

Where does the Little Tern sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Little Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Jakarta (10 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.

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