States
North CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaSouth CarolinaKentuckyAlabamaArkansasFloridaLouisianaMississippiVirginiaWest Virginia
Menu

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.

1 of 5

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Upper Texas Coast Beach; Louisiana Beach; 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.

Summer

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.

SummerOpen Water (Fresh)

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 (21)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana. Those recorded in Louisiana first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (16)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
Northeast (3)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer.
Land cover and other classes (2)
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

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 its main habitats

Its main habitats in Louisiana, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 139

Plants 84

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Louisiana

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Birds 97

Plants 25

All of coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated) in Louisiana

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Birds 91

Plants 8

All of sounds, bays and tidal flats in Louisiana

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources