Sternula albifrons
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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:
| # | 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 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 6 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 12 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 14 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 15 | Komodo National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 16 | Oosterschelde National Park | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 17 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 18 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 19 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 20 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 21 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 22 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 23 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 24 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 25 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 2 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 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 |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern sighting in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 121st most-seen of the 173 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.
April
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Little Tern in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, against about 10% in February and March, the lowest months. That is one of Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in August. May to October have too few records to rate.
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.
5th of 25
Of the 25 parks where we can rate Little Tern sightings, Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 30%), Sundarbans National Park (India, about 20%) and Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%).
Same family: Laridae
The closest relatives of the Little Tern that you can see in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (family Laridae, Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers) are Caspian Tern (about 60%), Whiskered Tern (about 50%) and Gull-billed Tern (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Tern is recorded against all the birds logged in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (23 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.
