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
Arctic tern of its range. The Arctic tern was known as sea swallow describing their slender shape as they swoop over the water. The genus name "Sterna" is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern". The specific "paradisaea" is from Late Latin "paradisus", "paradise". The Scots names "picktarnie", "tarrock" and their many variants are also believed to be onomatopoeic, derived from the distinctive call. Due to the difficulty in distinguishing the two species, all the informal common names are shared with the common tern. The Arctic tern has a continuous worldwide circumpolar breeding distribution; there are no recognized subspecies. It can be found