Medium. Long forked tail. Tail streamers do not project beyond wings when at rest. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Cap, black. Eye, dark brown. Back, most of wings, light grey. Outer primaries white with pale grey along outer and inner web of outermost primary. Secondaries lack band on trailing edge below. Rump, most of tail, white, the outer tail feather having a pale grey outerweb. Upperparts, underparts, pale grey. Bill, coral-red. Legs, orange-red. Non-breeding: Similar to breeding plumage but forehead is white and forecrown is streaked with white. Underparts, white. Tail is shorter. Bill, dusky pink. Legs, dusky pink.
Immatures: 1st winter: Similar to non-breeding adult. Faint black shoulder. Secondaries, white. Outer primaries pale grey. Rump, tail, white. Tail shorter. Bill, black. Legs, black.
Breeds on Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands including Maquarie Island and New Zealand. A rare winter vagrant to Australia. Recent records, Merricup WA, July 1978, South Casuarina Island, off Kangaroo Island, SA Nov 1982 and Sept 2006. All in non-breeding plumage.
Habitat
Coasts and islands of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic seas, preferring embayments with rocky shores or cliffs and inshore waters, often supporting large beds of kelp. In non-breeding season pelagic, occasionally occurring in temperate waters such as the coasts of Africa and South America.
Antarctica (B), Argentina, Australia, Bouvet Island (B), Brazil, Chile, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), French Southern Territories (B), Heard Island and McDonald Islands, New Zealand, South Africa (B), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (B), St Helena (B), Uruguay (NB).
Antarctic Tern (Sterna vittata) [XC314477]
by Sander Lagerveld from Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha, United Kingdom (call)
Antarctic Tern (Sterna vittata) [XC583146]
by JACOB Herv\u00e9 from Paradise Harbour, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica (flight call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Breeds on Heard and Macquarie Islands and islands in the Antarctic.
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Nest
A shallow scrape in pebbles or shells, on moraines or scree slopes, cliffs, rocks and exposed tops of ridges, rock-strewn beaches, rock fields by fresh water, low areas behind beaches.
Eggs (Guide)
1 or 2, usually 1; slightly glossy, buff-olive sparsely spotted with sepia and blotched with grey-brown; long-oval; about 46 x 33 mm. Incubation: 23 - 25 days; by both sexes.
Young
Semi-precocial, nidifugous. Fledge in 23 - 25 days.
Subspecies
Birds of St Paul and Amsterdam Is sometimes included in nominate vittata.
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
vittata Gmelin, 1789 - Prince Edward I, Marion I, Crozet Is, Kerguelen Is, and (probably this subspecies) Heard I.
tristanensis Murphy, 1938 - Tristan da Cunha, Gough, and possibly Amsterdam and St Paul. Single breeding report from South Africa questioned, but based on a ringing recovery.
georgiae Reichenow, 1904 - South Georgia. Birds of South Orkney Is, South Sandwich Is and Bouvetøya I possibly this subspecies.
gaini Murphy, 1938 - South Shetland Is. Presumably this subspecies breeds south to Marguerite Bay on Antarctic Peninsula.
bethunei Buller, 1896 - Stewart I, and Snares Is, Auckland Is, Bounty Is, Antipodes Is and Campbell I.
macquariensis Falla, 1937 - Macquarie I.
sanctipauli Gould, 1865 - St. Paul and Amsterdam Is.
Similar Species
Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)
Smaller and slimmer. Bill is shorter, slimmer bill. Legs, shorter and distinctly finer. Finer, more tapered wings. Tail more deeply forked. Underparts whiter and has black-trailing edge to outer primaries.
White-fronted Tern (Sterna striata)
Juveniles and first immature non-breeding with same. Bill, longer and finer. Upperparts, paler grey. Legs, black.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
BirdLife International Species Factsheet