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
Little tern Little tern The little tern ("Sternula albifrons") is a seabird of the family Sternidae. It was formerly placed into the genus "Sterna", which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of "Sterna", "tern". The specific "albifrons" is from Latin "albus", "white", and "frons", "forehead". The former North American ("S. a. antillarum") and Red Sea "S. a. saundersi" subspecies are now considered to be separate species, the least tern ("Sternula antillarum") and Saunders's tern ("Sternula saundersi"). This bird breeds on the coasts and inland waterways of temperate and tropical Europe and Asia. It is