What is the least tern habitat?
The least tern inhabits areas along the coasts of Florida including estuaries and bays, as well as areas around rivers in the Great Plains (Florida Natural Areas Inventory 2001).
What is the smallest tern?
The Least Tern
The Least Tern is the world’s smallest tern—it weighs in at about the same size as a mockingbird. The “interior” Least Tern, which nests in the vast Mississippi River drainage, was listed as Endangered in 1985 when the population was estimated at fewer than 2,000 birds.
What does a least tern look like?
Breeding adults are pale gray and white, with a black cap, white forehead, and yellow bill. Nonbreeding adults have a dark bill, smudgy grayish crown, and may show a dark bar at the bend of the wing. The outer primaries are dark gray-black. Juveniles are similar to nonbreeding adults but scaly gray above.
Why is the least tern endangered?
Before the species was protected as endangered in 1985, the number of interior least terns had plummeted below 2,000 birds due to changes to river systems from dams, dikes, reservoirs and water diversions, which eliminated most of their historic nesting habitat.
Why is it called least tern?
Our smallest tern. Often seen flying low over the water, with quick deep wingbeats and shrill cries.
Is the least tern endangered?
Least Concern (Population decreasing)Least Tern / Conservation status
Is least tern federally endangered?
For purposes of the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has assigned the endangered status to the interior population of the least tern. The California population of the least tern has been listed as endangered since 1970. The Atlantic population is not listed.
Where was the least tern discovered?
HISTORICAL STATUS: Historically, the least tern was found on the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and California coasts, and on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Rio Grande river systems. It was found throughout the Missouri River system up to the lower Missouri in Montana.
What does a least tern sound like?
Calls. High-pitched, squeaky calls include a ki-dik heard frequently from flying birds, often those carrying fish, and various alarm calls, including zwreep, kit-kit-kit-kit, and a lower-pitched krowk.
Why is the roseate tern endangered?
By the late 19th century, U.S. populations of Roseate Tern had declined steeply due to plume hunting. Although populations have stabilized since, the northeast population is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and habitat loss, climate change, collisions, and predation continue to be threats.
Are Caspian terns endangered?
Least Concern (Population increasing)Caspian tern / Conservation status
Is USACE delisting the interior least tern?
As noted in the draft PDM and the proposed delisting rule, management commitments by USACE alone currently encompass about 80 percent of the Interior least tern breeding population, including large portions of the Mississippi, Red, Arkansas, and Missouri Rivers.
Is the interior least tern on the Federal List?
On October 24, 2019, we published a proposed rule to remove the Interior least tern from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife ( 84 FR 56977 ). Please refer to that proposed rule for a detailed description of previous Federal actions concerning this species.
What is the scientific name for a least tern?
In 2006, the American Ornithologist’s Union recognized least terns under a previously published genus ( Sternula) based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny (Bridge et al. 2005, p. 461).
Where do least terns live in the US?
The Service defined the historical breeding range of the Interior least tern to include the Colorado (in Texas), Red, Rio Grande, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers systems from Montana south to Texas, and from New Mexico east to Indiana ( 50 FR 21784; May 28, 1985).