Common Tern in North Carolina

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in North Carolina 7

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 7

SummerOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / 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.

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

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime 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.

Summer

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish 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 (17)

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

Elsewhere in the South (12)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
Louisiana Beach Summer and 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.
Upper Texas Coast 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 North Carolina

Migratory: does not nest here, in 93 of 100 counties.
Winter: does not nest here, in 2 of 100 counties.
Summer: nests here, in 20 of 100 counties.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, 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.