Fairy tern Fairy tern The fairy tern ("Sternula nereis") is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is "Critically Endangered". There are three subspecies: The fairy tern is a small tern with a white body and light bluish-grey wings. The crown and nape is black. It can be distinguished from the little tern in that a black band extends no further than the eye and not as far as the bill. In the breeding plumage both the beak and the legs are yellowish-orange. During the rest
Royal tern Royal tern The royal tern ("Thalasseus maximus") is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek "Thalasseus", "fisherman", from "thalassa", "sea". The specific "maximus" is Latin for '"greatest". This bird has two distinctive subspecies: "T. m. maximus" which lives on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the North and South America, and the slightly smaller "T. m. albididorsalis" lives on the coast of West Africa. The royal tern has a red-orange bill and a black cap during the breeding season, but in the winter the cap becomes patchy. The royal tern is found in Europe,