Little Tern Sterna albifrons

Suffolk Priority Species

The Little Tern, Sternula albifrons, is Britain’s smallest tern, belonging to the family Laridae, and one of its most charming and precarious summer visitors. Adults are white and silver-grey with a black cap and nape, a distinctive white forehead patch, and a yellow bill tipped with black – a combination that readily distinguishes it from larger terns. An agile, hovering fisher, it plunges repeatedly into shallow inshore waters for small fish and invertebrates. The species nests in small, loosely colonial groups on open shingle and sandy beaches, placing eggs directly on the substrate with virtually no protection. This makes colonies extremely vulnerable to tidal inundation, predation, and human disturbance. Suffolk’s shingle coastline, particularly at Minsmere and Orfordness, supports some of the most important Little Tern colonies in England, managed with considerable effort by conservation organisations. Image: © Darren Obbard, iNaturalist.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist