Royal Tern

Thalasseus maximus

IUCN: Not Evaluated

Taxonomy

Order
Charadriiformes
Family
Laridae
Genus
Thalasseus
eBird Code
royter1

Distribution

breeds coastal southern California and Gulf of California to Sinaloa and Islas Tres Marias, and Atlantic from Virginia southward to Florida, Gulf of Mexico to s Texas, and Caribbean including peripheral islands southeastward to French Guiana, and disjunctly coastal southern Brazil, Uruguay, and east-central Argentina

Vocalizations

harrier · CC_BY_4_0
Linda Pardy · CC_BY_4_0
Dakota Parish · CC_BY_4_0
Andy · CC_BY_4_0

Data Sources

Bird images and sounds sourced from GBIF, contributed by citizen scientists worldwide under Creative Commons licenses.

Taxonomy data from AviList 2025.