Sandwich Tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
eBird describes the Sandwich Tern this way: Pale medium-sized tern with distinctive yellow tip on black bill. Shows a shaggy black cap in breeding plumage; nonbreeding birds develop white forehead. Strictly coastal; most commonly found on beaches and estuaries, often mixed with flocks of other terns. Harsh grating calls similar to other terns. All About Birds offers this additional descriptive information about the Sandwich Tern: The Sandwich Tern is a sleek, medium-sized tern with a ragged black crest and a gleaming black bill with a sharp yellow tip. It’s smaller and slimmer than a Royal Tern, a species it often nests alongside in busy, shrieking colonies along the barrier islands of the southeastern U.S. (Its broad global range also includes the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.) Rarely found inland or out to sea, this is a bird of ocean shores and estuaries, where it hunts small schooling fish.
I saw my first Sandwich Tern in a mixed flock of Gulls and Terns on the Quintana Beach on April 18, 2021. I took several photos of the large flock and when I returned home was able to positively identify the Sandwich Tern by its distinctive black bill with a yellow tip.
“Cool Facts” About the Sandwich Tern From All About Birds:
- Sandwich Terns are relatively mild mannered around their nests compared to quick-to-attack species such as Common Terns, which are famous for dive-bombing people and predators that approach too closely. Sandwich Terns often nest among Common Terns and probably derive some benefit from their behavior.
- The two subspecies of Sandwich Tern breeding in North America and Eurasia have black bills with yellow tips. A third subspecies known as the “Cayenne Tern” is found in the southern Caribbean and the Atlantic Coast of South America. It has an all-yellow or pale-orange bill,
- The oldest recorded Sandwich Tern was an individual at least 31 years, 2 months old that had been banded in North Carolina and was recovered in California.