Bird
Common Tern
Sterna hirundo
Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in all 64 parishes, across 5 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 5

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 5
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 5
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.
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.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
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.
Other habitats in its models (21)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
- Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Migratory: does not nest here, in all 64 parishes.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 2 of 64 parishes.
- Summer: nests here, in 7 of 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 44
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- KnotgrassPaspalum distichum
- Seashore CrowngrassPaspalum vaginatum
- Starrush Whitetop SedgeRhynchospora colorata
- Spreading BeaksedgeRhynchospora divergens
- Small's BeaksedgeRhynchospora globularis var. pinetorum
- Southern BeaksedgeRhynchospora microcarpa
- Shortbeak BeaksedgeRhynchospora nitens
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Slender Sea-purslaneSesuvium maritimum
- Giant BristlegrassSetaria magna
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Southern CattailTypha domingensis
- Carolina Yellow-eyed-grassXyris caroliniana
- Largeleaf PennywortHydrocotyle bonariensis
- Gulf SearocketCakile geniculata
- Madagascar PeriwinkleCatharanthus roseus
- Panicum amarum var. amarulumPanicum amarum var. amarulum
- MaidencanePanicum hemitomon
- Chinese Tallow-treeTriadica sebifera
Wildlife 236
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- American AvocetRecurvirostra americana
- American BitternBotaurus lentiginosus
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American CootFulica americana
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Bank SwallowRiparia riparia
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Black-necked StiltHimantopus mexicanus
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Bonaparte's GullChroicocephalus philadelphia
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Caspian TernHydroprogne caspia
- Common LoonGavia immer
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Eared GrebePodiceps nigricollis
- Forster's TernSterna forsteri
- Fulvous Whistling-duckDendrocygna bicolor
- GadwallAnas strepera
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Common Tern Brackish or salt water 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)




































