States
North CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaSouth CarolinaKentuckyAlabamaArkansasFloridaLouisianaMississippiVirginiaWest Virginia
Menu

Bird

Gull-billed Tern

Gelochelidon nilotica

A summer resident that nests in North Carolina. Found in 20 of 100 counties, across 6 habitats.

Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
20 of 100 counties
Habitats
6

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
20 of 100 counties
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 North Carolina 6

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

1 of 6

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach; Unconsolidated 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.

SummerWinter

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerAtlantic 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 (19)

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 (14)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
  • Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Summer and winter.
  • Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter.
  • Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer and winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter.
Northeast (1)
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer and winter.
Land cover and other classes (4)
  • Developed, Low Intensity Summer and winter, only within 500 m of water, for banks and other nest sites.
  • South Texas Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

  • 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.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 112

Plants 132

All of coastal dunes and beaches in North Carolina

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 120

Plants 23

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in North Carolina

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Birds 81

Plants 34

All of coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated) in North Carolina

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources