Gull-billed Tern, adult in breeding plumage
May in San Diego County, California
ALONG WITH THE Caspian Tern, the Gull-billed Tern has the most extensive breeding range of any non-oceanic tern, yet it is localized, generally uncommon, and unfamiliar to many birders. The species breeds from southern Scandinavia to southern Europe and northernmost Africa and east to China, as well as in Australia and the Americas. In North America, it is found along the Gulf of Mexico coast and the southern Atlantic coast north to Virginia and locally in small numbers north to Long Island. In the West, it breeds at the Salton Sea in southeastern California and more recently on the coast at south San Diego Bay and rarely north to Orange County.
Many Gull-billeds winter in Florida and the coasts of theDakota border; there are also interior records in most of the southeastern states and west to Kansas and New Mexico. It’s a bird that ought to be on birders’ radar over much of the continent, both coastally and in the interior.
