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Bird

Royal Tern

Thalasseus maximus

Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in 57 of 67 counties, across 6 habitats.

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

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
57 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

Freshwater marshes

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerWinterSouth Florida Everglades Sawgrass 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.

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.

SummerWinterAtlantic 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.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)
Other habitats in its models (8)

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

  • 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.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Florida

  • Year-round: nests here, in 39 of 67 counties.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 51 of 67 counties.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 134

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

Wildlife 254

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