Spectacled tern

Weight

120 g – 138.8 gsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Wingspan

74 cmsrc for Wingspan

Lifespan

21.9 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet

Longest recorded lifespan

25.8 years

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

marinesrc for Habitat

Egg incubation

32 dayssrc for Egg incubation

Young per litter or clutch

1src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

5 yearssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1src for Litters or clutches a year

Lifestyle

Aerialsrc for Lifestyle

Migration

Partialsrc for Migration

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The spectacled tern is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classAves
4. orderCharadriiformes
5. familyLaridae
6. genusOnychoprion
7. SpeciesOnychoprion lunatus (Peale, 1848)

Synonyms Sterna lunata

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

LC, Least Concern

Sooty tern

Onychoprion fuscatus

Laridae

LC, Least Concern

Bridled tern

Onychoprion anaethetus

Laridae

VU, Vulnerable

Aleutian tern

Onychoprion aleuticus

Laridae

CompareSpectacled tern vs Sooty ternSpectacled tern vs Bridled ternSpectacled tern vs Aleutian tern

• 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
• 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).
• 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).

@misc{spectacled_tern_2026,
  title = {Spectacled tern (Onychoprion lunatus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/spectacled-tern},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}