The Terns

Family : Laridae

Terns are birds belonging to the family Laridae and distributed in several genera: Gelochelidon, Hydroprogne, Thalasseus, Sterna, Sternula and Onychoprion. Terns are also commonly known as sea swallows.
There are a large number of tern :

• Little Tern
• Caspian Tern
• Gull-billed Tern
• Royal Tern
• Greater Crested Tern
• Elegant Tern
• Yellow-billed Tern
• Common Tern
• Arctic Tern
• Hansel's tern
• etc.....

The photos above relates to exclusively to:

• Little Tern - Sternula albifrons: It is a small tern recognizable by its yellow beak with black tip, white forehead and yellow legs.
• Common Tern - Sterna hirundo: its quick and graceful flight evokes that of the swallow. This characteristic earned him the usual name of "sea swallow". It is a palmiped bird, of the order of Charadriiformes and of the family of Laridaes, whose plumage is white and gray, the cap entirely black to the eyes and the orange-red beak with black tip.
• Hansel's tern - Gelochelidon nilotica: unlike other terns, hansel's tern forages in the ground, placed on a perch. It has an agile and graceful flight which allows it to catch its prey in flight and on the surface of the water. This tern is a migratory.