Thalasseus bengalensis
Silhouette: JJ Harrison (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern sighting in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, based on 84 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 195th most-seen of the 351 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Crested Tern in iSimangaliso Wetland Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to October, the lowest months. Those are among iSimangaliso Wetland Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 30 mm in July.
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.
4th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Lesser Crested Tern sightings, iSimangaliso Wetland Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Ningaloo Marine Park (Australia, about 20%), Cape Range (Australia, about 20%) and Komodo National Park (Indonesia, about 10%).
Same genus: Thalasseus
The closest relatives of the Lesser Crested Tern that you can see in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (genus Thalasseus, Crested Terns) are Crested Tern (about 30%) and Sandwich 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 iSimangaliso Wetland Park (84 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.
