Little Tern

Sternula albifrons sinensis

South Isl, Cocos Isls IMG_9480 20190210 - breeding plumage. Note: always has a white supercilium, cf sterna,
eg. Common Tern.

Notes: Small slender tern w. black cap & loral stripe & white forehead. Its thin sharp bill is yellow
w. a black tip; legs yellow. A broad black strip on inner web of outermost primary of wing, fine
white edges to folded primaries. Non-breeding plumage: forehead is more extensively white, bill
is black, a dark carpal-bar; cf Fairy Tern which always has some yellow in bill. LT feeds by plunge-
diving for fish, usually in saline environments. Both sedentary and Asian summer migrants.

Range from Morcombe©
Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4008 20210303 - non-breeding plumage. CLICK for one there in breeding plumage:
20231003 Barron River Mouth, Redden Isl., Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_0493 20191207 - breeding plumage on left, non-breeding on right.
CLICK for one in moult (outer primaries being replaced): Green Island, Cairns, 20231109. Mud Island, Port Phillip Bay, S Vic IMG_3782 20160402 - LT non-breeding plumage on right, Fairy Tern on left.
The white-patch above the eye gives it its eyebrowed look in breeding. Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, Melbourne, S Vic IMG_3231 20230707 - non-breeding. CLICK for this one with Crested Tern. Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_4765 20171010 - LT non-breeding plumage x 2 w. Crested Tern in non-breeding plumage.
CLICK for one in breeding plumage there. Foreshore, Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_8403 20201005 - LT non-breeding on right; Caspian Tern centre
and Pacific Golden Plover on left, both in breeding plumage. Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4270 20231003 - flying: breeding plumage. CLICK for another view. Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_7091 20220205 - flying: an early stage of non-breeding plumage. CLICK for another in
non-breeding plumage. Barron River mouth, Redden Isl., Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_0526 20191207 - non-breeding plumage. Foreshore, Elim Beach, CYP, FNE Qld IMG_8407 20201005 - LT in foreground, Crested & Lesser Crested Terns bathing at back. Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_4796 20240215 - non-breeding plumage.