Bird
Forster's Tern
Sterna forsteri
Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in all 64 parishes, across 6 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 6

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- 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 Louisiana 6
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.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
Other habitats in its models (40)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
- Barren Land Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer, beside its main habitat.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Year-round: nests here, in 20 of 64 parishes.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 58 of 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 94
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- LeConte's ThistleCirsium lecontei
- Toothache GrassCtenium aromaticum
- TitiCyrilla racemiflora
- Erectleaf WitchgrassDichanthelium erectifolium
- Rough WitchgrassDichanthelium leucothrix
- Drosera tracyiDrosera tracyi
- Slim SpikerushEleocharis elongata
- Texas PipewortEriocaulon texense
- Fimbristylis carolinianaFimbristylis caroliniana
- Fimbristylis castaneaFimbristylis castanea
- Fuirena scirpoideaFuirena scirpoidea
- Shortleaf SneezeweedHelenium brevifolium
- Savanna SneezeweedHelenium vernale
- Hypericum brachyphyllumHypericum brachyphyllum
- Peelbark St. John's-wortHypericum fasciculatum
- InkberryIlex glabra
- Virginia SweetspireItea virginica
- Dune Marsh-elderIva imbricata
- Pineland BogbuttonsLachnocaulon digynum
- Bog SpicebushLindera subcoriacea
- Spring Hill FlaxLinum macrocarpum
- Golden-crestLophiola aurea
- Shining FetterbushLyonia lucida
- Macranthera flammeaMacranthera flammea
Wildlife 237
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American CootFulica americana
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bank SwallowRiparia riparia
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Black-necked StiltHimantopus mexicanus
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Fulvous Whistling-duckDendrocygna bicolor
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Greater YellowlegsTringa melanoleuca
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Horned GrebePodiceps auritus
- Least BitternIxobrychus exilis
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Lesser YellowlegsTringa flavipes
- Little GullHydrocoloeus minutus
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
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 Forster's 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)






































