Spectacled tern Spectacled tern The spectacled tern ("Onychoprion lunatus"), also known as the grey-backed tern, is a seabird in the family Laridae. A close relative of the bridled and sooty terns (with which it is sometimes confused), the spectacled tern is less common than the other members of its genus and it has been studied less. The three species, along with the Aleutian tern were recently split into a new genus "Onychoprion" from "Sterna" (Bridge "et al.", 2005). They resemble the sooty tern but with a grey back instead of a black one. Their breast and underparts are white, and they have
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,