Bird
Gull-billed Tern
Gelochelidon nilotica
Lives in Alabama all year and nests here. Found in 4 of 67 counties, across 5 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 4 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 5

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 4 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 5
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Alabama 5
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
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.
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.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
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.
Other habitats in its models (20)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer and winter, only within 500 m of water, for banks and other nest sites.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter.
- Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer and winter.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer and winter.
- Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
- South Texas Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer.
- Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer and winter.
Seasons in Alabama
- Year-round: nests here, in 4 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 68
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.
- Dune Marsh-elderIva imbricata
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Panicum amarum var. amarulumPanicum amarum var. amarulum
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSporobolus pumilus
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Woody GoldenrodChrysoma pauciflosculosa
- Fuirena scirpoideaFuirena scirpoidea
- Largeleaf PennywortHydrocotyle bonariensis
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- KnotgrassPaspalum distichum
- Tall JointweedPolygonella gracilis
- Sand Live OakQuercus geminata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Gulf BluestemSchizachyrium maritimum
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Shoreline Sea-purslaneSesuvium portulacastrum
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Sea OatsUniola paniculata
- Virginia Chain-fernAnchistea virginica
- Bushy BluestemAndropogon glomeratus
- American BlueheartsBuchnera americana
- Gulf Coast Sea RocketCakile constricta
Wildlife 218
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- Wilson's WarblerWilsonia pusilla
- Yellow RailCoturnicops noveboracensis
- American KestrelFalco sparverius
- American Tree SparrowSpizella arborea
- Black-bellied PloverPluvialis squatarola
- Chipping SparrowSpizella passerina
- Chuck-will's-widowCaprimulgus carolinensis
- Cliff SwallowPetrochelidon pyrrhonota
- Eastern PhoebeSayornis phoebe
- Eastern Screech-owlMegascops asio
- Eastern TowheePipilo erythrophthalmus
- Field SparrowSpizella pusilla
- Henslow's SparrowAmmodramus henslowii
- Indigo BuntingPasserina cyanea
- Lapland LongspurCalcarius lapponicus
- Le Conte's SparrowAmmodramus leconteii
- Loggerhead ShrikeLanius ludovicianus
- Northern WaterthrushSeiurus noveboracensis
- Prairie WarblerDendroica discolor
- Red-shouldered HawkButeo lineatus
- Rusty BlackbirdEuphagus carolinus
- Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus
- Thayer's GullLarus thayeri
- Western Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus nivosus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Gull-billed Tern Brackish or salt water only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)





































