Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls
Whiskered Tern
Chlidonias hybrida
LCLeast Concern
- Family
- Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls (Laridae)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
Overview
The whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow". The specific hybridus is Latin for hybrid; Peter Simon Pallas thought it might be a hybrid of white-winged black tern and common tern, writing "Sterna fissipes [Chlidonias leucopterus] et Hirundine [Sterna hirundo] natam".
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Countries
- Albania
- Algeria
- Angola
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Belarus
- Benin
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- China
- Christmas Island
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guam
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Mauritania
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestine
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Poland
- Republic of the Congo
- Reunion
- Romania
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Whiskered tern
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
