Arctic Tern
(Sterna paradisaea)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen (flickr.com/photos/jukka_jantunen)
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Arctic Tern has a broad breeding range, from Atlantic Canada to the High Arctic, and uses both freshwater and marine habitats. Few monitoring data are available across most of this range and the status of the population in Canada remains unknown. However, observations of declines in both the Arctic and Atlantic Canada are potential causes for concern. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Intensive subsistence harvest of eggs may have contributed to declines around some northern communities (Hatch 2002), but population-level effects are unknown. In Atlantic Canada, the species abandoned what was once the largest known breeding colony, Machias Seal Island, in the late 2000s. A marked deterioration in foraging conditions and breeding success preceded the colony's abandonment, assumed to have been caused by a disturbance in the marine food web that remains largely unexplained (Gaston et al. 2009). 

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Gaston, A.J., D.F. Bertram, A.W. Boyne, J.W. Chardine, G. Davoren, A.W. Diamond, A. Hedd, W.A. Montevecchi, J.M. Hipfner, M.J.F. Lemon, M.L. Mallory, J.-F. Rail and G.J. Robertson. 2009. Changes in Canadian seabird populations and ecology since 1970 in relation to changes in oceanography and food webs. Environmental Reviews 17:267-286.
• Gilchrist, H.G. and G.J. Robertson. 1999. Population trends of gulls and Arctic terns nesting in the Belcher Islands, Nunavut. Arctic 52:325–331.
• Hatch, J.J. 2002. Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea). The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Hatch, J.J. 2002. Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea). The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)