Terns around the World

The Common Tern is a seabird which can be found breeding in most of Europe, Asia and North America. After breeding in the northern hemisphere they migrate south along the coasts to South America, southern Africa, Falkland Islands, India and Australasia except New Zealand.

We don't receive very many reports of Common Terns ringed in other countries. In fact, until last year, we only had 144 recoveries of Common Terns ringed abroad. Of these birds 50% came from Scandinavia.


Last month, ringers from Tees Ringing Group had some very good mist netting catches of terns. Their efforts paid off in the form of several exciting controls: one Common Tern from Finland, one from Sweden, one from Norway and one from Russia!

Common Tern MOSCOW TA64035, captured in Seal Sands in Teesmouth on the 3rd Sep 2010, is the first ever Common Tern from Russia and we can't wait to hear about the ringing details. We'll keep you posted.

Thank you to Allan Snape and Eric Wood for sharing this story and supplying the photographs.