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
Forster's tern Forster's tern The Forster's tern ("Sterna forsteri") is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name "Sterna" is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and "forsteri" commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. It breeds inland in North America and winters south to the Caribbean and northern Central America. This species is rare but annual in western Europe, and has wintered in Ireland and Great Britain on a number of occasions. No European tern winters so far north. This species breeds in colonies in marshes. It nests in a ground scrape and lays two or more eggs. Like all white