Bridled tern Sterna anaethetus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 14 inches
• Sexes similar
• Medium-sized tern with long wings
• Dark, slender, pointed bill
• Long, dark, deeply forked tail
• Smoothly rounded head without crest
• Gray-brown upperparts
• Black legs
• Limited range in United States-mostly pelagic

Adult:

• Black cap with thin white forehead patch
• White collar
• White underparts
• White underwing coverts and dark flight feathers below
• Pale bases to primaries on underwing

Juvenile:

• Dark upperparts with pale edges to feathers
• White underparts
• White collar
• Head pattern less distinct than adult
• Paler wing linings and belly

Similar species:

The dark upperparts and white underparts of the adult Bridled Tern are also found in the Sooty Tern but note that the Bridled Tern has a black cap, white collar, and gray-brown upperparts while the Sooty Tern is uniformly dark from the cap to the upperparts. From below, the Sooty Tern has darker flight feathers than the Bridled Tern.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.