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Bird

Forster's Tern

Sterna forsteri

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in 55 of 133 counties and cities, across 9 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
55 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
9

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
55 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
9
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 9

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

1 of 9

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
SummerWinterOpen 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
SummerWinterAtlantic 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.

SummerWinter

Freshwater tidal marshes

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

SummerWinterAtlantic 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)

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.

SummerBeside its main habitat.Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems
Other habitats in its models (36)

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

  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
  • Barren Land Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Louisiana Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
  • Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer, beside its main habitat.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in 25 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Migratory: does not nest here, in 21 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 25 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 249

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