Elegant tern
Thalasseus elegans (Gambel, 1849)
Status not recordedbirds
The elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans) is a species in the family Laridae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 258.3 g to 260 g and live up to 20.9 years.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the elegant tern
- Weight
- 260 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 8.92 years – 20.9 years
- Diet
- Aquatic predator
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- coastal
- Egg incubation
- 26 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1
- Age at maturity
- 3 years
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1
- Lifestyle
- Aerial
- Migration
- Migratory
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the elegant tern live?
Not recorded
Is the elegant tern endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the elegant tern classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyLaridae
- genusThalasseus
- SpeciesThalasseus elegans (Gambel, 1849)
Synonyms Sterna elegans, Thalasseus elegans, Thalasseus elegans elegans
Other names and names in other languages (43)
- Elegante SterretjieAfrikaans
- Южноамериканска рибаркаBulgarian
- xatrac elegantCatalan
- rybák západníCzech
- môr-wennol gainWelsh
- AztekterneDanish
- SchmuckseeschwalbeGerman
- eleganta ŝternoEsperanto
- GaviotínSpanish
- kalifornia tiirEstonian
- kaunotiiraFinnish
- Sterne éléganteFrench
- Geabhróg mhaiseachIrish
- Sternag aalinScottish Gaelic
- שחפית הדורהHebrew
- kalifornijska čigraCroatian
- pompás csérHungarian
- SkrautþernaIcelandic
- Sterna eleganteItalian
- ユウガアジサシJapanese
- grakščioji žuvėdraLithuanian
- slaidais cekulzīriņšLatvian
- Sierlijke SternDutch
- langnebbterneNorwegian
- rybitwa kalifornijskaPolish
- garajau-elegantePortuguese
- Элегантная крачкаRussian
- GuhkesnjunčearretNorthern Sami
- rybár pôvabnýSlovak
- prelestna čigraSlovenian
- Tihookeanska čigraSerbian
- aztektärnaSwedish
- Kaliforniya SumrusuTurkish
- Крячок елегантнийUkrainian
- 美洲凤头燕鸥Chinese
- AztekerterneDanish
- Charrán eleganteSpanish
- Pagaza eleganteSpanish
- Californische kuifsternDutch
- крачка элегантнаяRussian
- kara kanatlı bataklık kırlangıcıTurkish
- крячок каліфорнійськийUkrainian
- 麗色鳳頭燕鷗Chinese
Relatives of the elegant tern
Other species in the same genus Thalasseus.
Sandwich tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis
Swift tern
Thalasseus bergii
Lesser crested tern
Thalasseus bengalensis
Sea gull
Thalasseus maximus
Chinese crested tern
Thalasseus bernsteini
Cabot's tern
Thalasseus acuflavidus
CompareElegant tern vs Sandwich ternElegant tern vs Swift ternElegant tern vs Lesser crested ternElegant tern vs Sea gull
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the elegant tern?
An adult elegant tern weighs 260 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
How long does the elegant tern live?
The elegant tern has a recorded lifespan of 8.92 years – 20.9 years.
What kind of animal is the elegant tern?
The elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans) belongs to the family Laridae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/elegant-tern
“Elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/elegant-tern.
@misc{elegant_tern_2026,
title = {Elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/elegant-tern},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}