Sandwich Tern

The Sandwich tern is a medium-large tern with pale silvery-grey upperparts, white underparts, a yellow-tipped black bill and a shaggy black crest that shrinks in winter as the crown turns white. Young birds have grey and blackish scalloped plumage on the back and wings.

It is vocal, nests in a ground scrape and lays one to three eggs. It feeds by plunge-diving for fish, and the male offers fish to the female as part of courtship. It has interbred with the elegant and lesser crested terns.