Marsh tern
Encyclopedia
The name marsh tern refers to tern
Tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...

s of the genus Chlidonias, which are typically found in freshwater marshes, rather than coastal locations.

There are four species:
  • Black Tern
    Black Tern
    The Black Tern, Chlidonias niger, is a small tern generally found in or near inland water in Europe and North America. As its name suggests, it has predominantly dark plumage.- Description :...

    , Chlidonias niger
  • White-winged Tern
    White-winged Tern
    The White-winged Tern, or White-winged Black Tern, Chlidonias leucopterus, is a small tern generally found in or near bodies of fresh water across from Southeastern Europe east to Australia....

     or White-winged Black Tern, Chlidonias leucopterus
  • Whiskered Tern
    Whiskered Tern
    The Whiskered Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details....

    , Chlidonias hybridus
  • The Black-fronted Tern
    Black-fronted Tern
    The Black-fronted Tern also known as Sea Martin, Ploughboy, Inland Tern, Riverbed Tern or Tarapiroe, is a small tern generally found in or near bodies of fresh water in New Zealand and forages for freshwater fish, arthropods and worms. It has a predominantly grey plumage...

    , Chlidonias albostriatus (formerly Sterna albostriata) is now also recognized to belong to this genus (Bridge et al., 2005).


The Black-bellied Tern
Black-bellied Tern
The Black-bellied Tern is a tern found near large rivers in South Asia. They have a black belly in the summer and a deep forked tail. They can sometimes resemble Whiskered Terns but the deeper fork and the black on the lower belly distinguish it from the shallow fork and black closer to the breast...

 (Sterna acuticauda) and the White-cheeked Tern
White-cheeked Tern
The White-cheeked Tern is a species of tern in the Sternidae family.It is found in Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, and...

(Sterna repressa) might also be placed in Chlidonias.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK