Common Tern

Common Tern

The Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) is a migratory bird that breeds in the northern hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Tern nests in colonies on coasts and islands and often in the inland at appropriate lakes.
The bird feeds on small fish, insects and molluscs.

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Black-backed Gull

Black-backed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer

The Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar birds species in the skimmer family. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts, but the South American races make only shorter movements in response to annual floods which extend their feeding areas in the river shallows. Skimmers have a light graceful flight, with steady beats of their long wings. They feed usually in large flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish, insects, crustaceans and molluscs caught by touch by day or especially at night.

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Least Tern

Least Tern

The Least Tern (Sternula antillarum, formerly Sterna antillarum) is a species of tern that breeds in North America and locally in northern South America. It is migratory, wintering in Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. Many spend their whole first year in their wintering area. It has occurred as a vagrant to Europe, with one record in Great Britain.

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Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

The Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus / Sterna sandvicensis) occurs in Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Most of the population are migratory birds.

Sandwich terns are living coastal and on small islands with shallow water and a good supply of food.

The Sandwich tern is an accurate diver. It mostly takes small fish in flight on the coast or on the high seas. It also feeds on molluscs, worms and insects.

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Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) has a breeding range that extends from Iceland in the northwest to Spain in the southwest and the Taimyr Peninsula in the northeast.

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Little Tern

Little Tern

The Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) breeding in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands. The majority of the world population is migratory birds.

 The Little Tern is foraging at the coast, but also in slow flowing rivers. Their diet consists of small fish, crustaceans, clams, snails and insects.

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Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

The Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia) has a large but sparse habitat and nesting occurs on every continent except South America and Antarctica.

The Caspian tern is a migratory bird. From Europe moves most of the birds flighs straight across the Sahara Desert and winters in tropical West Africa. The relatively few Asian populations are wintering partly in Africa and partly around Sri Lanka and the East Indies. The North American population winters in the Caribbean and northern South America. African and Australian Caspian terns remain year round.

Caspian tern feed on fish.

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Kittiwake

Kittiwake

The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) has a circumpolar distribution in the arctic and temperate regions and occur in the North Atlantic and North Pacific.

In Europe, it lives primarily in the North Atlantic coasts. During the 1900s, it has established itself in the North Sea and Kattegat. It is partly a migratory bird, and from August to April (outside the breeding season) the bird is only found on the high seas. During this period, different atlantic colonies are mixed with each other. The Kittiwake is the most common bird in the North Atlantic.

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Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

The Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) breeds in the arctic regions of northern Russia, on islands in northern Siberia, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Midway Islands in the Pacific. Most birds are migratory. In winter you finc the Glaucous Gull in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean as far south as the British Isles and northern United States, including in the Great Lakes. Some birds sometimes reach the southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

The Glaucous Gull nests on the coastline of rocky shores or steep grassy slopes, but can also breed several kilometers inland on cliffs or on small islands in lakes.

The Glaucous Gull is omnivores. They forage while swimming or walking, but can also pick up food from the water and catch small birds while flying. The gulls often follow fishing boats.

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European Herring Gull

European Herring Gull

The European Herring gull (Larus argentatus) occurs as a breeding bird in Iceland and the British Isles, along the western coasts of Europe as far south as southern France, in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and northwestern European Russia.

Herring Gull is a seabird that occurs along the coast, in ports, in large lakes and wetlands. In North America it occurs to a greater extent in the inland. It has successfully adapted to humans and breed in coastal cities and at dumps.

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Great Skua

Great Skua

The Great Skua (Stercorarius Skua) occurs in the northern Atlantic and breeds on the islands and along the coast cliffs or on moist upland coastal heaths on Svalbard, Jan Mayen, Bear Island, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway and the UK. Great skua is a migratory bird and in winter it lives pelagic and occurs over a much wider area of the Atlantic.

The Great Skua eats mainly fish, which it often obtains by robbing gulls, terns and even Northern Gannets of their catches. It will also directly attack and kill other seabirds, up to the size of Great Black-backed Gulls. Like most other skua species, it continues this piratical behaviour throughout the year, showing less agility and more brute force than the smaller skuas when it harasses its victims.

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Little Gull

Little Gull

Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus) has a very wide range. It breeds in northeastern Europe and in scattered locations in central Europe and in Asia, in Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. It also breed very locally at the Great Lakes in North America. It is a migratory bird, but its winter quarters are poorly known. In January 1990, 52 000 individuals was observed in the Nile Delta in Egypt which is the maximum number of Little Gulls that have been reported. The Little Gulls overwinter around the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast and a few around the coasts of Britain and in North Africa. The North American population winters along the U.S. east coast.

The Little Gulls pick food off the water surface, and will also catch insects in the air like a Black Tern.

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Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Gull

Gull

The Gull (Larus canus) is breeding over large parts of the northern hemisphere. Generally one can say that the nest circumpolar between 50 and 70 latitude except in Greenland and eastern Canada.

The gull nests in a variety of habitats near water, such as large lakes, small forest lakes, along the coast. Along the coasts and large inland lakes nest is often in large colonies. It is also found in urban areas, but not to the same extent as the Herring Gull.

Despite being a sea bird the gull rather eats worms than fish.

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Arctic Skua

Arctic Skua

Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) also known as the Arctic Skua or Parasitic Skua. The bird occurs circumpolar and it's range covers the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic coasts and islands. Arctic skua breeds in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia's coasts, in the tundra of northern Canada and northern Russia, and in northern Britain and the Faroe Islands. The species is an extreme migratory bird that spend the winter pelagic. The main areas during the winter are the seas of South America, West Africa and eastern Australia. A small number winters in the Mediterranean.

 As other skuas they are living of kleptoparasitism when they follow gulls and terns, causing them to puke up gizzard contents, which they catches in flight.

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Great Black-backed Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

The Great Black-backed gull's (Larus marinus) breeding areas are mostly coasts around Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya, Scandinavia, Estonia, Latvia, Ireland, the UK's west coast, Iceland, southern Greenland and along the west coast of Canada and the USA. Into the country they nest at some of the larger lakes in Sweden and Finland. Parts of the population are migratory birds, primarily populations that breed in Arctic regions. Others are sedentary, or move only short distances.

The Great Black-backed Gull is shy and wary, and a loner in comparison to many other species in the genus.

The Great Black-backed Gull is an opportunistic bird in terms of food and can be classified as omnivores.

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Black Tern

Black Tern

The Black Tern  (Chlidonias niger) breeds in North America, Asia, Eastern Europe, in scattered areas in western Europe and northeastern Africa. The Asian populaionen spans Siberian steppe zone to the north-western part of Xinjiang province in China.
The Black Terns are long-migrant birds who have their winter quarters south of the equator.

The black terns nests in shallow freshwater marshes.

The black tern's main food consists of insects, which the bird often picks from the water surface but also captures in the air.

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Long-tailed Skua

Long-tailed Skua

The Longtailed Skua  (Stercorarius longicaudus) has a circumpolar breeding distribution around the tundra and mountain areas in the northern parts of Scandinavia, Russia, North America and Greenland. Skua is long migrant and in winter have a circumpolar distribution in the oceans in the Southern Hemisphere, primarily outside of South America south east and west coasts of Africa and south-west coast of the South Atlantic but also in the Southern Ocean. The food during breeding area consists mostly of lemmings and voles but also other small animals, fish, insects and berries. During migration, they are more likely to catch their own food instead of stealing from gulls and terns which the larger species in the genus are doing.

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