Arctic Tern

Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan, 1763

Arctic Tern, Sterna paradisaea, breeds across the Arctic and subarctic coasts and inland areas of the Palearctic and North America, from Greenland, Iceland and the British Isles to north-eastern Siberia, Sakhalin and Kamchatka, and from the Aleutians and Alaska through Arctic and subarctic Canada to James Bay, south-eastern Canada and New York. Outside the breeding season it ranges through subantarctic waters, the oceans and the Antarctic Ocean to the pack-ice edge. It is a tern in the Laridae family, and is known for its circumpolar breeding range.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Laridae — Gulls, Terns, Skimmers

Breeding range

Palearctic, North America: widespread Arctic and subarctic coasts and inland, from Greenland, Iceland and British Isles to ne Siberia, Sakhalin and Kamchatka (e Russia), Aleutian Is., Alaska mainland through Arctic and subarctic Canada to James Bay, se Canada and New York

Nonbreeding range

subantarctic and oceans and Antarctic Ocean to edge of pack-ice