Bird
Least Tern
Sternula antillarum
A summer resident that nests in Alabama. Found in 2 of 67 counties, across 6 habitats.
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 6

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 6
- Habitat models
- Summer
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.

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.
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.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Other habitats in its models (29)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Barren Land Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon 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 Summer.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
Seasons in Alabama
- Summer: nests here, in 2 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 221
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- Barn SwallowHirundo rustica
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Black SkimmerRynchops niger
- Black-necked StiltHimantopus mexicanus
- Blue-winged TealAnas discors
- Bonaparte's GullChroicocephalus philadelphia
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Caspian TernHydroprogne caspia
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Common TernSterna hirundo
- Forster's TernSterna forsteri
- GadwallAnas strepera
- Glaucous GullLarus hyperboreus
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Greater YellowlegsTringa melanoleuca
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Horned GrebePodiceps auritus
- Laughing GullLeucophaeus atricilla
- Least BitternIxobrychus exilis
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Lesser YellowlegsTringa flavipes
- Long-billed DowitcherLimnodromus scolopaceus
- Northern ShovelerAnas clypeata
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP summer habitat model for Least Tern Slow streams 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)






































