Guide to North American Birds
Family Gulls and Terns
This Eurasian species, rare in our area, is similar to Black Tern and usually associates with it. Most often seen with flocks of migrant Black Terns on the Atlantic Coast in late summer. It has also strayed from Asia to Alaska. There are a couple of instances of adults summering around marshes in the interior, and an adult once paired with a Black Tern in Quebec and nested there.

Photo Gallery

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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Songs and Calls

Call a loud, harsh kwek or creek; also kvrr-kak.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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