Bird
Least Tern
Sternula antillarum
A summer resident that nests in Florida. Found in 50 of 67 counties, across 8 habitats.
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 50 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 8

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 50 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 8
- Habitat models
- Summer
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Florida 8
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.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
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 (16)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.
- 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.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
Seasons in Florida
- Summer: nests here, in 50 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 157
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Sea OatsUniola paniculata
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Dune Marsh-elderIva imbricata
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Shoreline Sea-purslaneSesuvium portulacastrum
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSpartina alterniflora
- Muhlenbergia capillaris var. filipesMuhlenbergia capillaris var. filipes
- Sand Live OakQuercus geminata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Starrush Whitetop SedgeRhynchospora colorata
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Sea OxeyeBorrichia frutescens
- Tropical WaxweedCuphea aspera
- Northern Seaside SpurgeEuphorbia polygonifolia
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Violet ButterwortPinguicula ionantha
- Tough BumeliaSideroxylon tenax
- Solidago sempervirensSolidago sempervirens
- Spartina bakeriSpartina bakeri
Wildlife 255
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.
- American AvocetRecurvirostra americana
- American BitternBotaurus lentiginosus
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- American WigeonAnas americana
- Bank SwallowRiparia riparia
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Fulvous Whistling-duckDendrocygna bicolor
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Greater YellowlegsTringa melanoleuca
- Lesser Black-backed GullLarus fuscus
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- Ring-billed GullLarus delawarensis
- Stilt SandpiperCalidris himantopus
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- Whooping CraneGrus americana
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American CootFulica americana
- American White PelicanPelecanus erythrorhynchos
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)








































