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
Tern another by call, and siblings also recognise each other's vocalisations from about the twelfth day after hatching, which helps to keep the brood together. Vocal differences reinforce species separation between closely related birds such as the least and little terns, and can help humans distinguish similar species, such as common and Arctic terns, since flight calls are unique to each species. Terns have a worldwide distribution, breeding on all continents including Antarctica. The northernmost and southernmost breeders are the Arctic tern and Antarctic tern respectively. Many terns breeding in temperate zones are long-distance migrants, and the Arctic tern probably sees