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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.

1 of 8

Freshwater marshes

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerFloridian Highlands Freshwater MarshRegional / 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.

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.

SummerAtlantic 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.

Summer

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerFlorida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh; Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Florida Big Bend Salt-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.

SummerOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

SummerOnly within 1,000 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated Cropland; Pasture/Hay; Disturbed, Non-specific
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.

All habitats

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.

Wildlife 255

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