Common Tern

“. . . I am of opinion that no difference exists between the Common Terns of the two Continents. The cry of both is besides precisely similar, so that with me there is no doubt whatever as to their identity. Experience has shewn me that the markings or white spots on the primary quills of Gulls, at one time assumed as a criterion by which species might be distinguished, cannot in the least be depended on, varying, as they always do, in individuals of the same species, at almost each successive moult.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 7, p. 97.

View bird in National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds.

A specimen of this species, collected by Audubon, is housed in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.