Stats

Lifespan

15-25 yrs

Size

Medium

Diet

Carnivore

Activity

Diurnal

Social

Colony

Biome

Coastal marine

Range

Americas and West Africa

Movement

Flight

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Group defense

Status

Common

About

A large, crested tern of warm coastlines, easily told by its shaggy black cap and long orange-red bill. It nests in dense, tightly packed colonies on sandy islands, where chicks can pick out their own parents' calls amid thousands of neighbors.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   egg

   A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2. 2.
   hatchling

   A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3. 3.
   juvenile

   A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4. 4.
   adult

   Fully grown with adult plumage.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Laridae

Genus

Thalasseus

Species

Thalasseus maximus