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Bird

Least Tern

Sternula antillarum

A summer resident that nests in Virginia. Found in 34 of 133 counties and cities, across 7 habitats.

Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
34 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
7

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
34 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
7
Habitat models
Summer

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
SummerUnconsolidated 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)Regional / 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.

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.

SummerOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

SummerOnly within 1,000 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated Cropland; Pasture/Hay; Disturbed, Non-specific
Other habitats in its models (28)

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

  • Developed, Low Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Developed, Medium Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Barren Land Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Summer.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Summer.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
  • Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
  • Recently Burned Grassland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
  • Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Summer: nests here, in 34 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 90

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

Wildlife 227

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