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Habitat
Breeding Range
A “marsh tern,” breeds primarily in fresh, brackish, and saltwater marshes, including marshy borders of lakes, islands, or streams (Bent 1921, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998). Found more often in open, deeper portions of marshes, generally in wet-lands with considerable open water and large stands of island-like vegetation and/or large mats of floating vegetation (Bergman et al. 1970, McNicholl 1971, Cuthbert and Louis 1993); in Iowa, this species noted only in marshes >20 ha (Brown and Dinsmore 1986). Along Atlantic Coast, breeds in marshy portions of beach and estuarine areas (Clapp et al. 1983, Spendelow and Patton 1988). Suitability of nesting habitat often ephemeral, varying at given site from year to year (McNicholl 1971, 1975; Storey 1987; Greer et al. 1988; Visser and Peterson 1994).
Spring And Fall Migration
Similar to breeding habitat.
Winter Range
Similar to breeding habitat. In Florida, found at coastal beaches, salt- and freshwater marshes, lakes, and rivers (Stevenson and Anderson 1994). In Texas, found in 17 different wetland habitat types that collectively represent 90% of coastal habitat; lacustrine limnetic rock bottom rubble and 2 types of estuarine wetlands most frequently inhabited (Anderson et al. 1996). In Caribbean, when not foraging, frequents mudflats with other terns (Raffaele 1989).
Mcnicholl, Martin K., Peter E. Lowther and John A. Hall. 2001. Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/595
