Roseate tern and the bill black. Juvenile roseate terns have a scaly appearance like juvenile Sandwich Terns, but a fuller black cap than that species. This species breeds in colonies on coasts and islands, at times with other seabirds. In Australian territory, it has been recorded nesting alongside the black-naped tern ("S. sumatrana"), lesser crested tern ("Thalasseus bengalensis"), crested tern ("T. bergii"), fairy tern ("Sternula nereis"), bridled tern ("Onychoprion anaethetus") and silver gull ("Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae"). It nests in a ground scrape, often in a hollow or under dense vegetation, and lays one or two (rarely three) eggs. It is less defensive of
Elegant tern a characteristic loud grating noise like a Sandwich tern. This bird could be confused with the royal tern or Forster's tern, but the royal tern is larger and thicker-billed and shows more white on the forehead in winter. Out of range, it can also be easily confused with the lesser crested tern. See also orange-billed tern, and the external link below. This species is marginally paler above than the lesser crested tern with a white (not grey) rump, with a slightly longer, more slender bill with a different curve. The black of the crest that comes down from the crown