States
North CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaSouth CarolinaKentuckyAlabamaFloridaVirginia
Menu

Bird

Gull-billed Tern

Gelochelidon nilotica

Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in 55 of 67 counties, across 6 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
55 of 67 counties
Habitats
6

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
55 of 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 Florida 6

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

1 of 6

Swamps

Loblolly bay in a coastal swamp
SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded SwampRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal swamps, Florida to Virginia; state not identified, a neighboring state.Loblolly bay in a coastal swamp, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Southeast Florida Beach; South Florida Shell Hash Beach; Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation; Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach; Southwest Florida Beach; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland; Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland; East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland; 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.

SummerWinter

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterMississippi 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 (12)

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

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach 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.
  • Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Florida

  • Year-round: nests here, in 32 of 67 counties.
  • Summer: nests here, in 32 of 67 counties.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 137

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

Wildlife 270

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

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

Sources