# Little tern (*Sternula albifrons*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-tern  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The little tern (Sternula albifrons) is a bird in the family Laridae and the order Charadriiformes. It is a small, migratory aquatic predator of coastal habitats that forages in the air, with an adult body mass of 57 g and a wingspan of 52 cm. The IUCN Red List assesses it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 55 g – 60 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Wingspan | 52 cm |
| Lifespan | 23.9 years |
| Diet | Aquatic predator |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 23.9 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | coastal |
| Egg incubation | 21.3 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 2.2 |
| Age at maturity | 24 months |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Lifestyle | Aerial |
| Migration | Migratory |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Charadriiformes
- family: Laridae
- genus: Sternula
- species: *Sternula albifrons* (Pallas, 1764)

Synonyms: *Sternula albifrons*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Australia

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the little tern?

The little tern is a bird in the family Laridae, order Charadriiformes. It is a migratory species of coastal habitats.

### How heavy is a little tern?

An adult Little tern has a body mass of 57 g, with reported values from 55 to 60 g. Its wingspan is 52 cm.

### Is the little tern endangered?

No. The IUCN Red List lists the little tern as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

### How long does a little tern live?

The little tern lives up to 23.92 years, according to the values reported by our sources.

### Which countries is the little tern recorded in?

Checklists record the little tern in Australia.

### Who named the little tern?

The scientific name Sternula albifrons is attributed to (Pallas, 1764).

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), 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
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), 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](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), 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](https://commons.wikimedia.org), 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).
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), 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).

Cite as: Little tern (Sternula albifrons). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-tern