Wildlife
Arctic terns are famous for undertaking the longest migration of any bird. Some individuals travel from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again over the course of a year. Their migration means that they never feel the full effects of winter - when the northern hemisphere experiences its winter months, the birds are in the southern hemisphere, and vice versa. Arctic terns breed in northern latitudes such as the UK, as well as in the Arctic circle.
Did you know?
Arctic terns fly the equivalent of three round trips to the Moon in its lifetime.
Scientific name: Sterna paradisaea
Rank: Species
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The Arctic tern
The ‘swallow of our seas’ is one of the most impressive and beautiful seabirds.
The ‘swallow of our seas’, the Arctic tern is arguably one of the most impressive and beautiful of our seabirds.
Arctic to Antarctic
Arctic terns migrate 12,000 miles to fish where the sun doesn't set.
David Attenborough visits an Arctic tern colony in Spitzbergen. Parent birds can fish 24 hours a day because of the midnight sun in the Arctic summer. The terns migrate 12,000 miles from the Arctic to Antarctic and thus experience two summers a year. They return to exactly the same nest sites every year.
More than a job
Life as a live in warden at the tern colony on the Skerries.
Life as a live in warden at the tern colony on the Skerries.
Tern attack
Frozen Planet producer Miles Barton finds that trying to brush your teeth in the midst of a tern colony can have its drawbacks!
Frozen Planet producer Miles Barton finds that trying to brush your teeth in the midst of a tern colony can have its drawbacks!
The Arctic tern can be found in a number of locations including: Arctic, Asia, Europe, North America, Russia, United Kingdom, Wales. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Arctic tern distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America (as far south as Brittany and Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates from its northern breeding grounds along a winding route to the oceans around Antarctica and back, a round trip of about 70,900 km (c. 44,300 miles) each year. This is by far the longest regular migration by any known animal. The Arctic Tern flies as well as glides through the air, performing almost all of its tasks in the air. It nests once every one to three years (depending on its mating cycle); once it has finished nesting it takes to the sky for another long southern migration.
Arctic Terns are medium-sized birds. They have a length of 33–39 cm (13–15 in) and a wingspan of 76–85 cm (26–30 in). They are mainly grey and white plumaged, with a red beak (as long as the head, straight, with pronounced gonys) and feet, white forehead, a black nape and crown (streaked white), and white cheeks. The grey mantle is 305 mm, and the scapulae are fringed brown, some tipped white. The upper wing is grey with a white leading edge, and the collar is completely white, as is the rump. The deeply forked tail is whitish, with grey outer webs. The hindcrown to the ear-coverts is black.
Arctic Terns are long-lived birds, with many reaching thirty years of age. They eat mainly fish and small marine invertebrates. The species is abundant, with an estimated one million individuals. While the trend in the number of individuals in the species as a whole is not known, exploitation in the past has reduced this bird's numbers in the southern reaches of its range.
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Migration
Carnivorous
Colonial
Courtship display
Adapted to flying
Acoustic communication
Monogamous
Moulting
Egg layer
Parental investment
Predator
Visual communication