Tern sea terns have light grey or white body plumage as adults, with a black cap to the head. The legs and bill are various combinations of red, orange, yellow, or black depending on species. The pale plumage is conspicuous from a distance at sea, and may attract other birds to a good feeding area for these fish-eating species. When seen against the sky, the white underparts also help to hide the hunting bird from its intended prey. The Inca tern has mainly dark plumage, and three species that mainly eat insects, the black tern, white-winged tern, and black-bellied tern, 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,