States
North CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaSouth CarolinaKentuckyAlabamaFloridaVirginia
Menu

Bird

Common Tern

Sterna hirundo

A winter visitor to Alabama, found in all 67 counties and 6 habitats.

Here
Winter and on migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 67 counties
Habitats
6

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter and on migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 67 counties
Habitats
6
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Alabama 6

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 6

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerOpen Water (Fresh)Regional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

SummerWinter

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Summer

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterMississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)
Other habitats in its models (21)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.

  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Winter.
  • Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in Alabama

  • Migratory: does not nest here, in all 67 counties.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 1 of 67 counties.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 56

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 218

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources