#1136 · 🐦 birds
Elegant Tern
🇳🇱 Sierlijke Stern ·Thalasseus elegans
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Ad Konings · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Bill Bouton · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © marlin harms · CC BY 4.0
- 4. © David F. Belmonte · CC BY 4.0
- 5. © Toren Lawley · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Mac · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © datadan · CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The elegant tern ( Thalasseus elegans ) is a tern in the family Laridae. It breeds on the Pacific coasts of the southern United States and Mexico and winters south to Peru, Ecuador and Chile.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 10,648 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by William Gambel in 1849 (177 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Elegant Tern
- Nederlands
- Sierlijke Stern
- scientific name
- Thalasseus elegans
- class
- Aves
- order
- Charadriiformes
- family
- Laridae
- IUCN Red List
- NT · near threatened
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 112
- sightings worldwide
- 10,648
- GBIF records in NL
- 66
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1849 by William Gambel
IUCN in Dutch: gevoelig. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Laridae
#0538 📷 10Black-headed Gull
🇳🇱 Kokmeeuw
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
LC 👀 5k in NL
#0540 📷 9European Herring Gull
🇳🇱 Zilvermeeuw
Larus argentatus
LC 👀 4.4k in NL
#0567 📷 10Lesser Black-backed Gull
🇳🇱 Kleine Mantelmeeuw
Larus fuscus
LC 👀 2.1k in NL
#0573 📷 10Common Tern
🇳🇱 Visdief
Sterna hirundo
LC 👀 1.7k in NL
#0581 📷 10Common Gull
🇳🇱 Stormmeeuw
Larus canus
LC 👀 1.4k in NL
#0613 📷 9Great Black-backed Gull
🇳🇱 Grote Mantelmeeuw
Larus marinus
LC 👀 632 in NL
#0625 📷 9Sandwich Tern
🇳🇱 Grote Stern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
LC 👀 466 in NL
#0648 📷 9Caspian Gull
🇳🇱 Pontische Meeuw
Larus cachinnans
LC 👀 299 in NL
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 144542, Wikidata Q524893, GBIF 2481285, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.