Sandwich Tern

Sterna [Thalasseus] sandvicensis

Locally common Summer visitors from March-October with 118,000 breeding pairs in Britain on sandy and low islands, plus 3,700 in Ireland.

Winters in Africa.

Also breeds in mainland Europe from April-August.

Adults have a hin, sharp bill is black with a yellow tip. Its short legs are black in Summer.

In Winter, the Adult's forehead becomes extensively white.

Juveniles have dark tips to their tails, an all-blackish bill (lacking the yellow tip, but sometimes yellowish at the base) and a scaly appearance on their back and wings, like Juvenile Roseate Terns but with less black on the crown.

The call is a characteristic loud grating kear-ik or kerr ink.