Aleutian tern Sterna aleutica

Identification Tips:

• Length: 13 inches
• Sexes similar
• Dives into water for prey
• Medium-sized tern with short, slender, pointed bill
• Long, deeply forked tail
• Smoothly rounded head without crest
• Mostly pale underwing with dark bar on secondaries
• Gray mantle

Adult alternate:

• Black legs
• Black bill
• Black cap with white forehead
• Gray underparts
• White rump and tail

Juvenile:

• Scaly brownish wash to upperparts
• Black bill with red lower mandible
• Dark cap with pale forehead
• Reddish legs
• Tail with dark tips

Similar species:

The Aleutian Tern's United States range is restricted to Alaska. There, it might be confused with similarly-sized Arctic and Common Terns. The Aleutian Tern has a distinctive white forehead and a dark bar on the secondaries.

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