Sign in to see your badges. Elegant medium-sized tern with a slender yellow-orange bill and black crown. Can be confused with Great Crested Tern; note proportionally longer, more orangey bill on Lesser Crested. Also note gray upperwing, which separates it from Sandwich Tern.
Gray rump and tail are diagnostic if seen well. On juveniles, note dull legs, secondaries with dark centers, and a weakly patterned upperwing. Strictly coastal, usually found on beaches and estuaries. Naturalized : Exotic population is self-sustaining, breeding in the wild, persisting for many years, and not maintained through ongoing releases including vagrants from Naturalized populations. These count in official eBird totals and, where applicable, have been accepted by regional bird records committee s.
Provisional : Either: 1 member of exotic population that is breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years, but not yet Naturalized; 2 rarity of uncertain provenance, with natural vagrancy or captive provenance both considered plausible. When applicable, eBird generally defers to bird records committees for records formally considered to be of "uncertain provenance".
Provisional species count in official eBird totals. Escapee : Exotic species known or suspected to be escaped or released, including those that have bred but don't yet fulfill the criteria for Provisional. Escapee exotics do not count in official eBird totals. Skip to content. Charadriiformes Laridae. Exotic species Exotic species flags differentiate locally introduced species from native species.
