Least Tern

About the Least Tern

The Least Tern is the smallest tern in North America - a sparrow-weight seabird with a black cap broken by a clean white forehead patch, a yellow black-tipped bill, and quick, clipped wingbeats that give its flight a hurried, fluttery look no other Texas tern shares.

Least Terns hover conspicuously over shallow water before dropping in tidy little plunge-dives after small fish. They nest in loose colonies as bare scrapes on open sand and shell, where eggs and chicks are nearly invisible - and terribly vulnerable to beach traffic, which is why colonies are roped off each summer. The interior river population was federally endangered for over three decades before recovering enough to be delisted in 2021.

In Texas, Least Terns breed from April through September on coastal beaches, dredge-spoil islands, and sandbars of the larger rivers, and the whole population departs south for the winter.