Least 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)Regional / 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.

SummerUnconsolidated 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.

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.

SummerOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

SummerOnly within 1,000 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated Cropland; Pasture/Hay; Disturbed, Non-specificLyell Carr, Black Mountain: a pasture and hayfield with a log barn, rail fence and grazing cow below the Black Mountains. Black Mountain, North Carolina (Lyell E. Carr)*Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain"*, Lyell Carr, c. 1890-1912. Public domain. Source record.

Other habitats in its models (27)

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 (16)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Summer.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer.
Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer.
Southeast Florida Beach Summer.
Southwest Florida Beach Summer.
Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer.
Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer.

Northeast (2)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer.

Land cover and other classes (9)

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 Grassland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

Summer: nests here, in 21 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.