A slender, orange bill, pearl gray upperparts, and fringed black crest adjoining a white face and neck indeed render this graceful hunter from the south elegant. The foreheads of adults turn white in post-breeding plumage, their usual state in Oregon.

These terns frequent quiet waters or lagoons when diving for fish, but also dive in calm ocean waters. They roost with flocks of gulls and other terns on coastal spits, estuarine sandbars, and on mudflats close to bay mouths.

Virtually all records of the Elegant tern in Oregon are coastal or within half a mile of shore. None have been reported inland.

Hear the call of the Elegant tern

Photo by Ingrid Taylar, Flickr