Distribution

Breeding Range

Figure 1 . Following description based on recent state and provincial bird books and breeding bird atlases in addition to those references cited. Breeds at inland locations from s.-central and se. Northwest Territories (Great Slave Lake, Lac La Martre, possibly north to 65°N at Anderson River; Johnson and Herter 1989, Sirois et al. 1995), n. Saskatchewan, n. Manitoba, n. Ontario, central Québec and s. Labrador, south to n. and e. Montana, N. Dakota, ne. South Dakota, e.-central Minnesota, n. and e. Wisconsin, e. Michigan, extreme n.-central Ohio, n. New York, extreme nw. Vermont, s. Québec, n. and e. Maine, s. New Brunswick, and s. Nova Scotia. Western limit of breeding range at foothills of Rocky Mtns. in Mackenzie, Alberta, and Montana. Nesting local and scattered at southern margin of inland range; declining in s. Great Lakes, where has nested sporadically in Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania (see Historical changes, below). Suspected nesting in e. and s.-central Washington not confirmed (Weber 1981). Also nests along the Atlantic coast from s. Labrador, Newfoundland, throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Nova Scotia (including Sable I.), south to n. South Carolina, and on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana (formerly se. Texas, s. Alabama, s. Mississippi and nw. Florida).

Small numbers nest in Bermuda, Netherlands Lesser Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), and islands off Venezuela (La Orchila, Los Roques, Las Aves). Most nesting records from s. and e. Florida, Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles south to the Grenadines (cited by Benito-Espinal 1990, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998, Buckley and Buckley 2000) probably refer to red-billed Roseate Terns (Sprunt 1984, van Halewyn and Norton 1984, Stevenson and Anderson 1994). Common Terns occur in very small numbers in summer in the e. Caribbean (Benito-Espinal 1990, P. A. Buckley), but no fully documented nesting records.

Winter Range

Mainly along coasts of Central and South America from n. Colombia and s. Trinidad east to Brazil and south to Argentina, and from w. Mexico south to n. Chile (Murphy 1936, Haymes and Blokpoel 1978, Hays et al. 1997, Houston 2000). Recorded south to Strait of Magellan (52°S) on Atlantic coast and Valdivia (40°S) on Pacific coast (Bent 1921, Murphy 1936, DiCostanzo 1978). Occasional band records in winter from interior South America, including Amazon basin west to Bolivia and Peru (DiCostanzo 1978, D. B. Wingate). Small numbers occur in winter on Gulf Coast from central Texas to w. Florida (Root 1988); rarely along Atlantic Coast from e. Florida to N. Carolina, very rarely north to New Jersey and Massachusetts. Also scare in winter on east coast of Central America, rare in n.-central and e. Caribbean north of Trinidad (Howell and Webb 1995, Raffaele et al. 1998).

Breeding Range

Throughout temperate Europe and Asia from Azores, Canary Is., British Is., Faeroe Is., and Norway east to Gulf of Anadyr, Kurile Is., Sakhalin, North Korea, and ne. China. Extends north of Arctic Circle in n. Norway and e. Siberia, but mainly south of 65°N elsewhere in Russia (Il’icev and Zubakin 1990). Southern part of breeding range fragmented, but includes locations in Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Tunisia, Israel, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, n. India, and Tibet; one breeding record for Nigeria (Cramp 1985, Higgins and Davies 1996).

Winter Range

Both coasts of Africa south to Cape of Good Hope; coasts and islands of Indian Ocean east to w. Australia; w. Pacific from Japan to Solomon Is., New Guinea, and e. Australia; occasional in New Zealand; small numbers in sw. Europe (Cramp 1985, Higgins and Davies 1996). Straggler to Iceland (Cramp 1985), Hawaiian Is. (Clapp et al. 1983a), and Cook Is. (Houston 1972).

No marked changes in breeding distribution in North America during period of historical record (since about 1870), despite major fluctuations in numbers (see Demography and populations: population status, below). Atlantic coastal populations nearly extirpated by collecting for millinery trade in 1870s and 1880s, recovered rapidly to reoccupy original range by 1920s; extended south to S. Carolina in 1960s (McNair and Post 1993). Range in s. Great Lakes has contracted since 1960, but nested in all Great Lakes states except Indiana during 1990s (Cuthbert and Timmerman 2001). Now absent from Texas, where formerly local but abundant breeder in south and southeastern parts of the state (Pemberton 1922, Bent 1924, Oberholser 1974). No recent records from Mississippi, Alabama, or nw. Florida, where formerly bred occasionally.

No information from North America. Pleistocene and Recent fossils identified as this species recorded from several sites in Europe (Brodkorb 1963), but dating and identifications questionable (Olson 1985).