Gulls & Terns

Whiskered Tern

Weißbart-Seeschwalbe

Chlidonias hybrida

Gulls & Terns12 photosFirst seen: 4 September 2026

The Whiskered Tern is a marsh tern that feeds over shallow freshwater and often nests on floating vegetation. It breeds in scattered colonies across southern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia and may remain far inland throughout the year.

ID tip: Breeding adults combine a black cap, white cheeks, dark grey body and red bill. In non-breeding and juvenile plumage, look for the compact marsh-tern shape, grey rump and dark ear patch rather than the deeply forked tail of many sea terns.

First seen: 4 September 2026 · Lake Skadar · 12 photos in the collection.

Places in my records

Locations where this species is supported by a dated first record, an unambiguous single-place outing or a reviewed assignment.

Lake Skadar4 September 2026

Family: Gulls & Terns (Laridae)
Length: 23–29 cm
Wingspan: 57–63 cm
Regional status: Summer visitor (Montenegro)
Conservation: Least Concern LCIUCN Red List · retrieved 5 September 2026
Habitat: Shallow freshwater marshes, lakes, rice fields and slow rivers
Diet: Aquatic insects, small fish, amphibians and crustaceans

Built from verified occurrence records, not drawn by hand. Core range = the countries holding 99% of all records; the rest are scattered or vagrant records. Record counts track where people watch birds as much as where the birds are, so the map shows presence, not abundance. Data: GBIF (CC BY 4.0). Basemap: Natural Earth.

Selected photographs

Complete photo archiveAll 12 published photographs of this species, including the selected main gallery.Open all 12 photos in the archive →