Tern Around! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Large-billed tern

The large-billed tern is so called due to it having a very large yellow coloured bill. It belongs to the genus Phaetusa and is the only species in this genus. It's mainly found throughout the area of South America located north of the Pampas in Argentina and to the east of the Andes Mountains although there have been occasional sightings in the USA and some Caribbean nations. Along with a yellow bill, the large-billed tern also has yellow feet.

Answer: True

The white-winged tern belongs to the genus Chlidonias, or the marsh terns, and its main breeding habitat is freshwater marshes. The bird migrates from its breeding areas in southeast Europe, central Asia and the eastern part of Russia to Africa, south east Asia and Australia.

The white-winged tern mainly eats fish and insects but unlike many species of tern it does not dive to catch fish instead flying slowly near the water's surface and picking off fish near the surface as well as catching insects mid flight.

Answer: New Zealand

The New Zealand fairy tern is one of three recognised subspecies of the fairy tern and is found in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is classed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with very few birds left in the wild.

The New Zealand fairy tern does not dive for food like a lot of terns but instead forages for fish and shrimp in shallow water.

Answer: Peru

The Inca tern is found on the western coast of South America in coastal areas of Chile, Peru and Ecuador. The bird nests mainly on sea cliffs and eats small fish which it catches by diving into the water from flight. The species is named for the Inca people who inhabited western areas of Peru and Chile in pre-Colombian times. The Inca tern is the only member of the Larosterna genus.

Answer: False

While this species is commonly called the white tern it is actually a member of the genus Gygis rather than Sterna which has the common name of the large white terns. White terns can be found in tropical oceans across the world and plunge dive to catch small fish to eat.

It has been discovered through genetic studies that the white tern is genetically more similar to the seabirds called noddies than it is to other tern genera. Noddies are another member of the Laridae family (like terns) and belong to the Anous genus.

Answer: Arctic

The Arctic tern is named for the Arctic region with its breeding areas being located in the Arctic as well as in sub-Arctic areas of northern Europe, Asia and North America. The Arctic tern has one of the longest migrations of any bird species spending the Arctic winters on the coast of Antarctica in the southern hemisphere meaning the birds which nest furthest north have an annual migration journey of just under 45,000 miles.

Answer: Caspian tern

The Caspian tern is named after the Caspian Sea found in Central Asia and bordered by the nations of Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Although named a sea the Caspian is not connected to the world's ocean network and thus is technically a lake.

The Caspian tern is the only member of the genus Hydroprogne. Despite being named for the Caspian sea the bird can be found in areas all over the world with breeding populations found in the Great Lakes area of the USA, Australasia, around the Baltic and Black Seas in Europe as well as in Central Asia near the Caspian Sea. The Caspian tern mainly eats fish which it catches by hovering over water before diving.

Answer: Hawaii

The spectacled tern is so called because the black band around its eyes looks a little like it is wearing glasses. The bird is mainly found on islands in the Pacific Ocean with colonies in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia and American Samoa.

The spectacled tern is one of four species of tern that was moved to the genus Onychoprion (brown-backed terns) from the genus Sterna (white terns) in 2005 when it was felt that they were separate enough from the species in Sterna to need a genus of their own.

Answer: Crested tern

The genus Thalasseus consists of eight species of tern which are commonly known collectively as the crested terns after the 'crest' of shaggy plumage on the head of the birds. Various species and subspecies of crested tern can be found all over the world. They are usually found in coastal areas and eat fish from the sea which they dive for.

Answer: Australia

The Australian tern is a species in the genus Gelochelidon commonly known as the gull-billed terns as they have beaks that look more like those found on species of gull than on other tern species. The Australian tern, as its name suggests, is found in Australia as well as on the island of New Guinea. Unlike many terns which plunge dive for fish the Australian tern largely eats insects and has also been known to eat amphibians and small mammals hunted from wet fields.