Bird: Black Tern (Chlidonias niger)

Length: 10"

Description: Winter plumage is similar to immature plumage: White below, dark gray on wings and back. Tail is gray. Black cap extends down behind eye (called an ear patch). Eye and beak are dark; Legs are dark. A dark bar is visible on the side of the breast when bird is in flight. In the summer, the Back Tern molts into a black plumage over the entire body, with gray wings and tail.

Voice: A quick or extended "creeek" or "kr-crick". Audio is available at eNature.com.

Photograph courtesy Al Liberman

Feeding: Feeds like a tern: soars low or high swoops at water to eat fish, picks insects from air, and may be seen eating insects off plants.

Behavior at Wakodahatchee: The Black Tern is not commonly seen at Wakodahatchee. It visits during migration, and is listed as accidental. Its summer range is the northern mid-western and western United States into Southern Canada. The black tern is the only tern at eats insects as well as fish.

Click here for more information on The Black Tern from eNature.com