Bird
Interior Least Tern
Sternula antillarum athalassos
A summer resident that nests in Louisiana. Found in 7 of 64 parishes, across 3 habitats.
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 7 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 3
Photograph not available yet.
At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 7 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 3
- Habitat models
- Summer
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 3
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
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.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Other habitats in its models (13)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana. Those recorded in Louisiana first, the rest by region.
Elsewhere in the South (1)
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Summer.
Midwest (2)
- Northwestern Great Plains Floodplain Summer.
- Northwestern Great Plains Riparian Summer.
Land cover and other classes (10)
- Barren Land Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Recently Burned Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
Seasons in Louisiana
- 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.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Birds 153
- Cape May WarblerDendroica tigrina
- Greater RoadrunnerGeococcyx californianus
- House SparrowPasser domesticus
- Inca DoveColumbina inca
- Long-eared OwlAsio otus
- Monk ParakeetMyiopsitta monachus
- Smith's LongspurCalcarius pictus
- Upland SandpiperBartramia longicauda
- Western Burrowing OwlAthene cunicularia hypugaea
- Rock PigeonColumba livia
- BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorus
- Bronzed CowbirdMolothrus aeneus
Plants 958
- Muck SunflowerHelianthus simulans
- Canada LettuceLactuca canadensis
- Annual FleabaneErigeron annuus
- Common Evening-primroseOenothera biennis
- Cutleaf Evening-primroseOenothera laciniata
- Dog-fennelEupatorium capillifolium
- Threadleaf SundropsOenothera linifolia
- Carolina Crane's-billGeranium carolinianum
- Golden CrownbeardVerbesina encelioides
- Blackeyed SusanRudbeckia hirta var. pulcherrima
- Downy Ground-cherryPhysalis pubescens
- Gray Ground-cherryPhysalis grisea
Sounds, bays and tidal flats
Birds 91
- Parasitic JaegerStercorarius parasiticus
- BuffleheadBucephala albeola
- Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
- Sooty TernOnychoprion fuscatus
- Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus
- Western Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus nivosus
- Red KnotCalidris canutus
- Sandwich TernThalasseus sandvicensis
- American OystercatcherHaematopus palliatus
- Black SkimmerRynchops niger
- Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis
- Common TernSterna hirundo
Plants 8
- Shoal-grassHalodule wrightii
- Sago PondweedStuckenia pectinata
- Horned PondweedZannichellia palustris
- American WaterwortElatine americana
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- American EelgrassVallisneria americana
- Widgeon-grassRuppia maritima
- Carolina GrasswortLilaeopsis carolinensis
Ponds, lakes and their shores
Birds 91
- Black TernChlidonias niger
- BuffleheadBucephala albeola
- Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
- Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus
- Western Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus nivosus
- Purple MartinProgne subis
- Black SkimmerRynchops niger
- Cackling GooseBranta hutchinsii
- Eurasian WigeonAnas penelope
- Greater ScaupAythya marila
- Ross's GooseChen rossii
- SanderlingCalidris alba
Plants 162
- Mudbank CrowngrassPaspalum dissectum
- Clasping-leaf PondweedPotamogeton perfoliatus
- Loose Water-milfoilMyriophyllum laxum
- Slim SpikerushEleocharis elongata
- Viviparous SpikerushEleocharis vivipara
- Common BladderwortUtricularia macrorhiza
- Leafy BladderwortUtricularia foliosa
- Myrtle HollyIlex myrtifolia
- Water TupeloNyssa aquatica
- Peelbark St. John's-wortHypericum fasciculatum
- Southern Marsh St. John's-wortTriadenum tubulosum
- Warty SedgeCarex verrucosa
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP summer habitat model for Interior Least 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)















































