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The UK Bird Atlas

Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)Where and when to see it in the UK

Summer visitor · reporting peaks May to July · Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)
JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Little Tern: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Little Tern has been recorded in 482 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (16%) in records to 2026. Summer visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in May to July.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
18% or more of visits
High
4% to 18%
Moderate
<1% to 4%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Very high
February 0%<1%Very high
March 0%<1%Very high
April 21%<1%Low
May 96%2%Very high
June 94%2%Very high
July 100%2%Very high
August 58%1%High
September 11%<1%Moderate
October 2%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in May

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HY63Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NB44Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NG88Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH75Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH85Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ92Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK01Sea, off Aberdeenshire100%Very high
NO51Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NZ62Redcar and Cleveland, England100%Very high
SD20Sefton, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.