Common Tern
Sterna hirundo
Common Tern · Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge · 3 August 2025
A Common Tern banking against open sky over Jamaica Bay in August, near the colony where it nested. Terns nest on the bay's islands, set aside because ground-nesting birds need to be free of mammal predators, and Jamaica Bay holds one of the larger colonies in the New York City area.
A full black cap and a deeply forked tail. The same bird breeds on the Kent coast; the ones here will winter off Brazil, and the oldest ringed one lived to twenty-five.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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