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. Thanks to the volunteers who warden the colony, the Terns have successfully fledged chicks every year since 2018 when the project started.
Volunteer
We need more help! If you can spare a few hours why not join our team of volunteers. For more info email bwifingal@gmail.com.
The Little Tern (Sterna albifrons) is Irelands rarest breeding Tern, with c.200 breeding pairs visiting the Island annually from the beginning of the breeding season in late April to its end in August. It is also the smallest of the five tern species that breed in Ireland. Having spent the winter off the west coast of Africa, the Little Terns take to shingle beaches on the east and west coast of Ireland, creating shallow scrapes in the pebble and sand for their nests (Doyle et al., 2015).
Little Terns are easily distinguished from other by their black caps, yellow feet and yellow, black-tipped beak (Marples and Marples, 1934). Parent Little Terns rely on small fish and crustaceans to feed their young until they are a few days old, as such, proximity to brackish water is of significant importance for breeding Little Terns (Doyle et al., 2015). Little Tern eggs and chicks are excellently adapted to remain hidden in the open on shingle beaches. While this offers protection, the exposed nature of their nest coupled with this camouflage leaves them vulnerable to predation, trampling and, not least, human disturbance (ibid). The use of wardening schemes, fencing and signage has proved successful in a number of Little Tern conservation projects to address his major and long-standing cause of low breeding success among Little terns (Keogh et al, 2013). Little Terns are listed on Annex 1 of the European Union Birds Directive (Council Directive 2009/147/EC) and they are fully protected in Ireland under the Wildlife Acts 1976 – 2012. Little Terns are also classified as both rare and localised breeders in Ireland and have been considered a vulnerable species since the early 1990’s. In spite of these protections, however, the species is still experiencing a decline in localised breeding populations, with BirdWatch Ireland amber listing the Little Tern “of medium conservation concern” as a result. The breeding colony of Little Terns at Portrane is a historic colony that has long felt the pressures of human disturbance. The result of this disturbance was the significant reduction in their numbers at Portrane since the 1990s.
In 2018 the Fingal Branch in conjunction with Fingal County Council, the NPWS and many volunteers fenced off a section of beach and setup a wardening roster to try to protect these vulnerable birds. Thanks to everyone’s hard work we managed to get 14 terns fledged, a huge success considering no more than 2 or 3 fledged in any of the previous 30 years and less than 7 in total. We managed to ring 13 of the chicks (IZ0-IZ9, IX0-IX2).
2019 looked like it was going to be an even better year with 18 nests with eggs but unfortunately over the course of two nights a predator managed to clear out 17 of the nests. The one remaining pair raised 3 chicks, two of which were ringed (IX4 & IX5). In 2020 9 fledged and 8 were ringed (IV0-IV5, IV7-IV9). Sadly, IV9 was found dead on the beach in early August before it fledged and although IV3 & IV4 were seen many times after fledging their sibling IV2 was not and was presumed dead.
Please report any sightings of the mentioned ringed birds to bwifingal@gmail.com.
Note: All photographs taken under licence and are copyrighted.