When do little terns arrive in and leave the UK?

A summer visitor in the records: sightings rise sharply from mid April, are near their peak by late April, and fall away after early September.

When do little terns arrive in the UK?

In the GBIF records, UK sightings of the little tern rise sharply from mid April and are near their peak by late April.

When do little terns leave the UK?

UK sightings fall away after early September.

Where do little terns go in winter?

From December to February the strongest signal in the effort-adjusted GBIF records is around South Africa. The globe shows the whole winter range month by month.

Little tern in the UK, month by month

Bars: this species’ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY 4.0 only), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 23,241 UK records (occurrence search API, country=GB, weekly). Dates come from sightings, not a survey, so treat them as a guide.

See the little tern migration on the 3D globe →

About the little tern

The little tern is a small seabird of the family Laridae. It is widely distributed breeding on the coasts and inland waterways of Europe, Asia, north and west Africa, and eastern Australia. It winters in the subtropical and tropical oceans as far south as South Africa and Australia.

From the Wikipedia article “Little tern” (revision 1369130856), CC BY-SA 4.0, shortened at a sentence end. Winter/summer areas: country containing the monthly hotspot of effort-adjusted GBIF records, using Natural Earth boundaries (public domain).

Other UK summer visitors: see the full list with arrival and departure dates.