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10

White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) Alternate name(s): "White-winged Tern", "White-tailed Tern" Size: 22-24 cm; wing span ca. 65 cm (average) Weight: 50-78 g

Australia: Family Group 10 Family Group 10 Table Brown Skua South Polar Skua Arctic Jaeger Pomarine Jaeger Long-tailed Jaeger Pacific Gull Kelp Gull Silver Gull Crested Tern Lesser Crested Tern Caspian Tern Gull-billed Tern White-fronted Tern Black-naped Tern Roseate Tern Common Tern Little Tern Fairy Tern Whiskered Tern White-winged Black Tern Grey Ternlet White Tern Sooty Tern Bridled Tern Aleutian Tern Common Noddy Black Noddy Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description White-winged Black Terns are medium-sized terns. Their plumage changes drastically between breeding season and eclipse. During the breeding season they have a black head, mantle, throat, chest and belly. Only the vent is white. The wings are dark-grey with white to light-grey shoulders. The eyes are black, the bill, legs and feet are dark-red. Outside the breeding season the front (neck, chest, belly,vent) and frons become white, with a mottled dark-grey cap. The wings are light-grey, with conspicuous dark-grey primaries. The bill, legs and feet turn black when not breeding. Juvenile birds have darker-grey wings, but otherwise resemble non-breeding adults. Twitcher's tip Compared to other, similar terns White-winged Black Terns in incomplete moult can be told by the remaining dark, worn feathers frequently seen on their wings and underparts.

Taxonomy, classification See White-winged Black Tern at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the White-winged Tern is available HERE . White-winged Terns are a migratory species. Their breeding grounds are marshes extending from South-east Europe to central Asia. They spend the northern winters in eastern and southern Africa, southern Asia and Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. In both South Asia and Australia they are found only in coastal habitats. During their migration they are also found in Asia Minor, coastal Arabia, Iran, Iraq and, in the far East of Asia, predominantly in Vietnam. White-winged Black Terns are non-breeding migrants to Australia from the North. They arrive anywhere along the tropical coast of Australia and disperse around basically the entire Australian seaboard, including the East coast of Tasmania and many small offshore islands. They can be found farther inland, in parts of the Great Dividing Range and in particular in the central part of the Murray-Darling Basin near the NSW/VIC border. There are also White-winged Black Terns in an area around Perth, WA. Elsewhere on the continent White-winged Black Terns are found only rarely, and never in the great deserts of WA/SA/NT or the Nullarbor. White-winged Black Terns live around lakes including ephemeral lakes, in estuaries and in coastal waters.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting White-winged Black Terns at the Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, in March 2013 and again in July 2013. In November 2018 White-winged Black Terns were found both at the Leanyer Sewage Treatment plant and at Lee Point, Darwin, NT. We found a White-winged Black Tern at Goran Lake, an ephemeral lake 30 km South of Gunnedah, NSW, in January 2022.

Photos

ADULT

BREEDING

Photos in breeding plumage were obtained in Europe.

NON-BREEDING

Sex unknown

Lateral view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage, front, with a Whiskered Tern, also in non-breeding plumage, behind it (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, July 2013]

Near-frontal view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, November 2018]

Slightly blurred near-frontal/ventral view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage in flight
[Goran Lake, near Gunnedah, NSW, January 2022]

Near-lateral view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, November 2018]

Near-lateral view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage in flight; note the dark feathers at the carpal joint (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, November 2018]

Lateral view of a White-winged Black Tern in non-breeding plumage in flight; note the characteristic strong colour contrast between the fresh grey wing feathers and the old, worn, dark outer primaries and the trailing secondaries
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, November 2018]

Near-dorsal view of White-winged Black Terns in non-breeding plumage in flight; note the characteristic strong colour contrast between the fresh grey wing feathers and the old, worn, dark outer primaries and the trailing secondaries
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, November 2018]

White-winged Black Terns in non-breeding plumage in flight, together with one Whiskered Tern in breeding plumage [upper left] (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Leanyer Sewage Treatment Plant, Darwin, NT, March 2013]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

wwbtern_20220116.m4a

(NW NSW)

Contact calls? (+ Pied Stilt)

© MD

More White-winged Black Tern sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Thu, 20 January 2022, 6:05 +00:00