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Bird

Common Tern

Sterna hirundo

A summer resident that nests in Virginia. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 7 habitats.

Here
Summer and on migration
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
7

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Summer and on migration
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
7
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 7

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

1 of 7

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
SummerOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Salt and brackish marshes

Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge
SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. Source record.

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 Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal 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 (18)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia.

  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Winter.
  • Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Migratory: does not nest here, in all 133 counties and cities.
  • Summer: nests here, in 4 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 117

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 219

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources