Least Tern

Sternula antillarum

Smallest tern in the Americas, smaller than a robin. Hovers, dives, and delivers in miniature.

Population: ~120,000 individuals globally (Partners in Flight estimate; ~52,000 in the US/Canada) — independently corroborated on two separately-fetched primary field-guide pages (Cornell All About Birds and Audubon), both stating "approximately 120,000 individuals"
Habitat: Sandy or gravelly coastal beaches, sandbars, and islands, plus riverine sandbars on major interior rivers and the Great Lakes; also uses gravel pits, abandoned salt flats, and flat rooftops for nesting, and forages over oceans, bays, estuaries, rivers, lagoons, and marshes
Fun fact: It is the smallest tern species in North America, and banding records indicate at least one individual lived beyond 24 years — among the longest-lived Least Terns documented.
Range: Breeds along coastal beaches of North America (Maine to California and the Gulf Coast), the Great Lakes, and along major interior US rivers (e.g., Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande systems), with a small breeding presence locally in northern South America; winters along marine coastlines of Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America as far as Brazil
Diet: Small fish (e.g., anchovies, silversides, killifish, sandlance, herring, hake, menhaden) caught by plunge-diving into shallow water, occasionally supplemented with small crustaceans/shrimp, insects, and (during El Niño events) tadpoles or small mollusks
Size: 0.23 m
Wingspan: 0.51 m
Lifespan: 24 years

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