Sternula albifrons
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Bako National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 9 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 11 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 13 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 14 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 15 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 16 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 17 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 18 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 19 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 20 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 21 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 22 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 23 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 24 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 3 | Makassar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 5 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Kuching | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 7 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 8 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 9 | Nizhny Novgorod | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 10 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 214th most-seen of the 236 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern in Melbourne on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
59th of 60
Of the 60 cities where we can rate Little Tern sightings, Melbourne ranks 59th at under 5%. The best odds are in Denpasar (Indonesia, about 30%), Manama (Bahrain, about 30%) and Makassar (Indonesia, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Melbourne (17 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.
