Little Tern
| Irish Name: | Geabhróg bheag |
| Scientific name: | Sterna albifrons |
| Bird Family: | Terns |
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Conservation status
Conservation status
Status
Rare summer visitor from April to late August to shingle or sandy beaches, mainly on the east and west coasts.
Identification
The smallest of the terns breeding in Ireland. Small slender seabird with narrow, pointed wings, long forked tail and long, pointed bill. Grey above and white below, dark cap to head, white forehead in all plumages. Flight is light and buoyant, hovers rapidly while foraging over the sea before repeatedly diving in. Has a dark leading edge to the primaries of its long narrow wings. Adult summer bird has long yellow bill with black tip. In winter plumage the white of the forehead extends up over the fore crown, the legs darken and the bill is all black. Juvenile plumage is distinct from the adult with dark bill, barred mantle and dark upper forewing.
Voice
Sharp, rasping and repeated.
Diet
Chiefly marine fish.
Breeding
Nest colonially on the ground on shingle beaches, making them very vulnerable to poor weather and ground predators. Only a few colonies are found in Ireland, with the majority breeding in Counties Louth, Wicklow and Wexford.
Wintering
Winters in coastal areas in western Africa.
Monitored by
BirdWatch Ireland has been monitoring and protecting breeding Little Terns at Kilcoole beach (Co. Wicklow) since 1985. In addition, the BirdWatch Ireland Fingal Branch have a Little Tern conservation project at Portrane (Co. Dublin), and BirdWatch Ireland partner with Louth Nature Trust to protect the Baltray (Co. Louth) colony.
Summer visitor, localised coastal range. Winters in coastal areas in Western Africa.
Blog posts about this bird
Devastating Bird Flu impacts on Irish seabirds revealed in new study
A new study has revealed the devastating toll of the 2023 bird flu outbreak on Ireland’s tern species at their most important colonies, with Common Terns in particular suffering huge losses.
The recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak was the worst ever seen in Ireland, the UK and Europe. Details of the 2023 outbreak in Ireland, the number of birds that died at key breeding colonies, and the effect it has had on nesting numbers in 2024, have been published in the journal Bird Study by staff of BirdWatch Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It focuses on colonies in Dublin (Rockabill Island, Dublin Port, Dalkey Island) and Wexford (Lady’s Island Lake) which have been subject to successful conservation efforts for decades, and the bird flu outbreak has come as a huge setback.
The full study entitled "A case study of the 2023 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in tern (Sternidae) colonies on the east coast of the Republic of Ireland" was published in the journal Bird Study and can be accessed here.
A BirdWatch Ireland Tern Warden removes dead birds during the 2023 avian flu outbreak.
Common Terns suffered very high mortality across all colonies in 2023, with over 700 adult birds and over 1,100 chicks found dead by wardens in colonies at Rockabill, Dublin Port and Lady’s Island Lake. Many more will have died at sea and elsewhere along the coast and not been found, and a census of nests this year recorded a devastating loss of 1,250 breeding pairs across the colonies. In the case of Dublin Port, the colony was halved in a single year, representing the lowest number of nests in 19 years, and similarly the lowest on Rockabill Island since 2003. “The experience of visiting the colony during the outbreak and seeing so many dead and dying birds was really difficult,” said Helen Boland, manager of the Dublin Bay Birds Project. "We’re used to visiting the colony when it’s full of life, so to see so many lost in such a short space of time really had us worried about the future of the species. Terns are long-lived birds that only lay a small number of eggs per year, so losing adult birds is much more damaging to the population than having a bad breeding season.”
Arctic Tern. Photo: Kevin Murphy
Arctic Terns were down by 160 breeding pairs, a 20% decline, across the colonies this year due to avian flu. The small colony at Dalkey Island suffered complete breeding failure early in summer 2023 due to rat predation, and this appears to have saved them from contracting avian flu as the birds had deserted before the virus reached Ireland. Arctic Terns lead a very challenging life, not just when trying to find safe places to nest on the Irish coast, but they migrate to Antarctica in the winter – a round trip of nearly 100,000km per year. They have been struggling to nest successfully at some key colonies in recent years, largely due to predation. This, coupled with the fact that Arctic Terns lay fewer eggs than Common Terns, means their recovery is expected to be much slower. Ireland holds 95% of the entire European population of the rare Roseate Tern, concentrated at Rockabill island in Dublin and Lady’s Island Lake in Wexford. Having so many birds at only two sites makes them particularly vulnerable to problems like disease, and their only colony in Britain had already been hit by bird flu in both 2022 and 2023. Despite 65 adult birds and 135 chicks being found dead in Irish colonies during the 2023 outbreak, this didn’t translate into significant losses this year; Lady’s Island was down by 31 pairs, but Rockabill managed to increase by 75 pairs. “The Roseate Tern numbers this year were a pleasant surprise and higher than we expected considering the losses we know came from avian flu,” said Dr. Steve Newton, BirdWatch Ireland’s Senior Seabird Conservationist. “It seems that the high number of chicks fledged in recent years means that recruitment of young birds into the colony was higher than the number of birds lost to bird flu. We’re still expecting to see slow or stalled population growth in the next few years, but it could have been much worse for the Roseates." The Sandwich Tern is Ireland’s largest species of tern, and over 1,500 pairs nest in Wexford. Sandwich Tern colonies all over the UK and Europe were hit with avian flu in 2022, but the virus didn’t reach Irish colonies that year. Nesting numbers last year indicate that Irish Sandwich Terns had suffered mortality on migration and in the wintering grounds however, with a loss of 300 pairs. It is assumed the remaining birds had developed some level of immunity to the virus and therefore escaped summer 2023 relatively unscathed, and actually bounced back to pre-flu numbers this year. This provides some encouragement that the birds can bounce back quickly, though it may simply be that the increase in birds is a result of immigration from other colonies.
Roseate Terns: Photo: Brian Burke.
Conservation staff of BirdWatch Ireland and NPWS began summer 2024 with a sense of trepidation that bird flu might return, but thankfully there were no signs of it in any of the colonies and most managed to have a successful breeding season this year. With only half the number of nesting pairs it had in 2023, the Dublin Port Tern colony had its most successful breeding season ever, with most pairs managing to fledge two chicks. Elsewhere, Roseate Terns at Rockabill did well, fledging at least one chick on average per pair. The Common Terns at Rockabill, and all tern species at Lady’s Island fared ok but generally faced problems with predation by gulls and foxes, amongst other species, and their greatly reduced numbers may have left them more vulnerable to predation. The long-term tern conservation work by BirdWatch Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and long-term support from Dublin Port Company, mean we are well-placed to facilitate recovery at the east coast tern colonies, but avian flu likely impacted west-coast and inland tern sites too. The colonies discussed here are the most important ones nationally for these four tern species and the impact of avian flu emphasizes the importance of not having ‘all of our eggs in one basket’. BirdWatch Ireland’s new Strategy outlines our intention to expand our work to inland and west-coast tern colonies and help secure the status of these species all over the country. Despite calls from BirdWatch Ireland, the Republic of Ireland has yet to develop a formalised plan for the monitoring and management of HPAI in wild birds. The role of various state agencies in such an outbreak is not clear, with some seemingly prioritizing impacts on livestock, others on potential public health implications, but little in the way of monitoring and managing the impact on wild birds. In the absence of comprehensive guidelines, regular meetings between BirdWatch Ireland and the NPWS proved invaluable in 2023. These meetings facilitated a comprehensive and adaptive approach as new guidance emerged from authorities in the UK and Europe and as the HPAI situation developed. It also allowed for a range of precautions to be implemented to minimise the risk of spreading the virus within or between colonies, or to people, while maintaining conservation efforts and long-term monitoring. This paper makes several key recommendations for future HPAI management and procedures in Ireland. It calls for the establishment of a more direct relationship between DAFM, NPWS and BirdWatch Ireland to allow for a more strategic response to outbreaks; the clarification of roles and responsibilities across all relevant government bodies; better resourcing to manage outbreaks and an increase in annual monitoring at Irish seabird colonies wherever possible to help ensure that threats such as HPAI can be monitored in real-time. It is vital that changes are enacted without delay, not only to prevent future seabird losses in the 2025 breeding season, but also to protect the many waterbird species that winter in Ireland and are too at serious risk from HPAI. Despite two cases of avian flu in Little Terns in Ireland, the species escaped largely unscathed and almost all colonies reported increased nesting numbers in 2024. We will report on the Little Tern breeding season in the coming weeks.The full study entitled "A case study of the 2023 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in tern (Sternidae) colonies on the east coast of the Republic of Ireland" was published in the journal Bird Study and can be accessed here.
The Rockabill Tern conservation project is a joint project between the National Parks & Wildlife Service and BirdWatch Ireland. https://www.npws.ie/
The Dublin Port Tern Conservation project is funded by Dublin Port Company as part of BirdWatch Ireland's 'Dublin Bay Birds Project'. https://www.dublinport.ie/
The Tern conservation project at Lady's Island Lake is a National Parks & Wildlife Service project, delivered by BirdWatch Ireland after a competitive tender process. https://www.npws.ie/
Q & A with Brian Burke - Project Manager of the Little Tern Project in Kilcoole
Marine Policy Officer, Rosalind Skillen, speaks to Little Tern Project Manager, Brian Burke about the The Little Tern Conservation Project in Kilcoole.
This is a National Parks and Wildlife Service project which is managed by Birdwatch Ireland. It is by far the largest Little Tern colony in Ireland, having grown from under fewer than 20 nesting pairs in the 1980s to 274 pairs in 2024.
Can you tell us a bit about Little Terns, the species you work to protect?
Little Terns are fantastic little birds. They weigh around 50g, so around half the size of a Blackbird. Terns were historically known as ‘sea swallows’ as they have a shape similar to a Swallow, with long pointed wings and forked tails, but are white and ‘marine’ in nature like a gull. These tiny little birds migrate to West Africa in the winter, and return to a number of out-of-the-way sand and shingle beaches around the Irish coast to try and raise their young. As seabirds that rely on a diet of fish, they’re excellent ecosystem indicators to give us an idea of what goes on beneath the waves. If Little Terns are doing well and raising young successfully, it must mean that the sea around their colony has enough fish to support them.
Have you noticed any changes in populations or behaviours over the years?
The biggest change has been the numbers at the Kilcoole colony. We now have by far the biggest colony of Little Terns in Ireland, and one of the biggest in all of Ireland and the UK, and that’s thanks to many years of conservation efforts by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and BirdWatch Ireland. I think it’s a real testament to long-term funding and long-term efforts. Sometimes it can take a few years for your efforts to be rewarded, but when it comes to scarce and declining species, we need to stick with it. We still have occasional bad years at Kilcoole, but importantly we now have many more good years than bad and the Kilcoole and east coast population as a whole are growing.
How do you involve the local community at Kilcoole?
The local community in Kilcoole are fantastic every year. They’re always delighted to see the Terns back, and indeed are sometimes concerned towards the end of April when we haven’t got all our fencing up yet! Something as simple as people walking on the beach, and letting dogs off leashes, are some of the biggest threats to Little Terns but everyone at Kilcoole is very happy to steer clear of the nesting area once the terns are back, and that makes a big difference. There’s a real sense of pride in Kilcoole around having these birds pick here to nest, and there’s a ‘Little Tern Playground’ in Kilcoole and one of the schools even has terns on their crest! Ultimately, many conservation problems are people problems rather than ecological problems. We know what most species need to thrive, but we need public buy-in to actually provide it. Thankfully the local community at Kilcoole are incredibly supportive.
What are the biggest threats to Little Terns in Kilcoole?
The biggest threats are predators, and waves. A single fox, or a determined Hooded Crow, Rook or Mink, could do a huge amount of damage in a very short space of time to a colony like this. Unfortunately in recent decades we’ve made the Irish landscape perfect for ‘mesopredators’ like these, and much less suitable for specialist species like the Little Tern. So we try and restore that balance on the beach at Kilcoole to give the Terns a chance. Similarly though, windy days, combined with a high tide can spell disaster for the colony and we’ve had huge amounts of eggs and chicks washed away in a couple of hours. Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do to stop the sea swell when conditions are like that, and with climate change and stormier and more unpredictable weather each summer it's something we’re going to keep seeing in the years ahead.
What can we do to support your work?
I think the Kilcoole Little Tern conservation project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved with long-term funding and continued efforts to address conservation problems and develop expertise over time. Kilcoole wasn’t an immediate success, but over time we’ve worked closely with NPWS to address the issues the birds face and to get to the stage where we have more good years than bad years. I think we need more protected sites, offshore and onshore, and we need to get plans and resources in place to reverse the biodiversity declines that are happening. Monitoring is important too – we need to know what we have, where we have it, and how it’s changing over time. The only way we’ll know if protection and conservation efforts are working is with continued monitoring. And importantly, we need to start now – there’s no time to waste!
[Photos 1-3: Brian Burke; Photo 4 (Ringing Photo): Oonagh Duggan]
The Kilcoole Little Tern Project is an NPWS project run by BirdWatch Ireland under a competitive tender agreement in 2024.
Have you noticed any changes in populations or behaviours over the years?
The biggest change has been the numbers at the Kilcoole colony. We now have by far the biggest colony of Little Terns in Ireland, and one of the biggest in all of Ireland and the UK, and that’s thanks to many years of conservation efforts by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and BirdWatch Ireland. I think it’s a real testament to long-term funding and long-term efforts. Sometimes it can take a few years for your efforts to be rewarded, but when it comes to scarce and declining species, we need to stick with it. We still have occasional bad years at Kilcoole, but importantly we now have many more good years than bad and the Kilcoole and east coast population as a whole are growing.
How do you involve the local community at Kilcoole?
The local community in Kilcoole are fantastic every year. They’re always delighted to see the Terns back, and indeed are sometimes concerned towards the end of April when we haven’t got all our fencing up yet! Something as simple as people walking on the beach, and letting dogs off leashes, are some of the biggest threats to Little Terns but everyone at Kilcoole is very happy to steer clear of the nesting area once the terns are back, and that makes a big difference. There’s a real sense of pride in Kilcoole around having these birds pick here to nest, and there’s a ‘Little Tern Playground’ in Kilcoole and one of the schools even has terns on their crest! Ultimately, many conservation problems are people problems rather than ecological problems. We know what most species need to thrive, but we need public buy-in to actually provide it. Thankfully the local community at Kilcoole are incredibly supportive.
What are the biggest threats to Little Terns in Kilcoole?
The biggest threats are predators, and waves. A single fox, or a determined Hooded Crow, Rook or Mink, could do a huge amount of damage in a very short space of time to a colony like this. Unfortunately in recent decades we’ve made the Irish landscape perfect for ‘mesopredators’ like these, and much less suitable for specialist species like the Little Tern. So we try and restore that balance on the beach at Kilcoole to give the Terns a chance. Similarly though, windy days, combined with a high tide can spell disaster for the colony and we’ve had huge amounts of eggs and chicks washed away in a couple of hours. Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do to stop the sea swell when conditions are like that, and with climate change and stormier and more unpredictable weather each summer it's something we’re going to keep seeing in the years ahead.
What can we do to support your work?
I think the Kilcoole Little Tern conservation project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved with long-term funding and continued efforts to address conservation problems and develop expertise over time. Kilcoole wasn’t an immediate success, but over time we’ve worked closely with NPWS to address the issues the birds face and to get to the stage where we have more good years than bad years. I think we need more protected sites, offshore and onshore, and we need to get plans and resources in place to reverse the biodiversity declines that are happening. Monitoring is important too – we need to know what we have, where we have it, and how it’s changing over time. The only way we’ll know if protection and conservation efforts are working is with continued monitoring. And importantly, we need to start now – there’s no time to waste!
[Photos 1-3: Brian Burke; Photo 4 (Ringing Photo): Oonagh Duggan]
The Kilcoole Little Tern Project is an NPWS project run by BirdWatch Ireland under a competitive tender agreement in 2024.
