Listen to the Forster's tern
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
About the Forster's tern
The Forster's tern is a bird in the family Laridae (order Charadriiformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”. Adults have a wingspan of about 78 cm.
What does the Forster's tern sound like?
Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once. Songs tend to be long and patterned and are used to hold territory and attract a mate; calls are short signals for contact, alarm and flight.
The recordings here are labelled as call. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).
From Wikipedia
Forster's tern (Sterna forsteri) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and forsteri commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster.
It breeds inland in North America in the northern United States and southern Canada, and migrates south to winter in the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and northern Central America. It is also a rare but annual vagrant in western Europe, and has wintered in Ireland and Great Britain on a number of occasions.
Related birds in the genus Sterna
More from the family Laridae
Black-headed gull
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
European herring gull
Larus argentatus
Common gull
Larus canus
Lesser black-backed gull
Larus fuscus
Caspian tern
Hydroprogne caspia
Black-legged kittiwake
Rissa tridactyla
Gull-billed tern
Gelochelidon nilotica
Great black-backed gull
Larus marinus
Black tern
Chlidonias niger
Sandwich tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
Frequently asked questions
What does a Forster's tern sound like?
You can hear 1 recording of the Forster's tern on this page, including its call. Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once.
Is the Forster's tern endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the Forster's tern as “least concern”.
What family does the Forster's tern belong to?
The Forster's tern (Sterna forsteri) belongs to the family Laridae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources & credits
- Call · Louisville Swamp, MVNWR, Scott, Minnesota by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q430529 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Forster's tern – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo by Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA ( en:User:Kevinlcole ) – CC BY 2.0