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Arctic Terns are medium-sized terns. When in Europe, adults are always found in breeding plumage. During the breeding season they have a black cap that extends well onto the nape of the neck, white cheeks and off-white to light-grey front (chin, neck, chest, belly and vent), of which usually the belly is darkest, and off-white to light-grey wings. The black eyes are surrounded by the black cap. The bill, the very short legs and feet are all dark-red. Although the bill does not have a black tip, it does in many individuals darken towards the tip.

Twitcher's tip

Compared to Common Terns, the Arctic Tern has even shorter legs and NO black tip to its bill, just some darkening towards the tip.

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 Arctic Tern is available HERE .

Arctic Terns are a global species - and they are the birds with the longest annual migration of all species (up to 90,000 km). Both in summer and winter their distributions are circumpolar. Their summer breeding grounds are in central and northern Eurasia and North America, plus islands such as Greenland and Iceland, all round the globe. Most breed inside the Arctic circle, but a significant part of the population also settles in more moderate climatic regions. They spend the northern winters in the Southern Ocean, as far to the South as the edge of the Antarctic continent. Their migration routes lead through the eastern Northern Atlantic to the Southern Atlantic Ocean, through the central Pacific Ocean and through the eastern Pacific Ocean.

In Europe Arctic Terns are summer breeding migrants. Their breeding range extends from parts of the coastlines of the British Isles (excluding south-facing coasts), the northern Dutch and the German North Sea coastline, around Denmark and around the Baltic Sea (except the coastlines of Poland and the Baltic States). Their breeding range continues northwards, including all islands in the northern Atlantic and the entire Scandinavian coastline, plus the entire northern half of Scandinavia (including inland waters). They are also found throughout northern European Russia. During migration they can be observed mostly along the coastlines of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, to the southern tip of Iberia.

Arctic Terns breed in both marine habitats (coastal, islands) and also inland (usually in tundra, near water). During migration and throughout the non-breeding season Arctic Terns remain exclusively in marine habitats, usually on the open oceans.

M. A. Pears reports finding Arctic Terns on the Farne Islands, off the North-east coast of England in April 2014.

M. Eaton reports spotting Arctic Terns at Skjerval, near Tromso, Norway, in June 2018.