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The UK Bird Atlas

White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus)Where and when to see it in the UK

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

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

White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus)
Ziegentom (www.fotocommunity.de), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
White-winged Black 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.

White-winged Black Tern has been recorded in 112 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Summer visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in 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
100% or more of visits
High
2% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 2%
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%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Very high
April 2%<1%Low
May 65%<1%Very high
June 70%<1%High
July 88%<1%Very high
August 81%<1%Moderate
September 100%<1%Low
October 3%<1%Very high
November 0%<1%Insufficient records
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in July

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HZ27Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
SO70Gloucestershire, England100%Very high
SY68Dorset, England100%Very high
TA41East Riding of Yorkshire, England100%Very high
TL16Cambridgeshire, England100%Very high
TM13Suffolk, England100%Very high
TM23Suffolk, England100%Very high
TM45Suffolk, England100%Very high
TM46Suffolk, England100%Very high
TF63Norfolk, England5%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.