Species group · Birds

Marsh Terns

WAnimals has 2 species of marsh tern, in the family Laridae.

2 species

1 family

58 countries

68 parks

Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.

All 2 species of marsh terns on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

2 Least Concern

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

Recorded in 58 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Its nest is a floating platform of plant matter anchored to the aquatic vegetation: it rises and falls with the water level, a solution that lets it breed in wetlands of shifting level where a fixed nest would be drowned.
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It hunts without submerging: it works the surface of the water in slow flight, picking off insects and fry, a style very different from the plunge-diving of other terns.
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It breeds on floating nests anchored to water plants.
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It is the only European tern that is almost black in breeding plumage, a striking contrast with its white and grey relatives.
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It does not plunge-dive like the sea terns: it works the surface of the water in light flight, picking insects off it, a feeding style closer to that of a swallow.
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