Little Tern Sterna albifrons

Little Tern Sterna albifrons in flight

Little Terns are small migratory shorebirds. They move between Japan and the east coast of Australia, where they breed in coastal areas from Victoria to the Northern Territory.

Nests are simple scrapes in the sand just above the high tide mark.

The Little Tern is listed as endangered under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act because

• Its population has been reduced to a critical level. It faces severe threatening processes
• It is an ecological specialist (it depends on particular types of diet or habitat)
• It has poor recovery potential
• It concentrates (individuals within populations of the species congregate or aggregate at specific locations)

The Foundation funded Little Tern recovery actions at several sites including

• Jones Beach, near Grafton
• Harrington Beach, near Port Macquarie
• Pelican Island, near the mouth of the Manning River

Protection of the breeding sites, monitoring, predator control and community education are the most important measures to ensure the individual colonies’ survival. Restoration of wader habitat is of the highest priority for endangered wading birds such as the Little Tern and plovers.

Little tern on nest

At Pelican Island for example these efforts proved to be successful. The Little Tern had not been breeding on the island for some years due to the vegetation and predation by foxes.

Volunteers used Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife funding to build a fox proof fence around the high tide wader roost and reduce colonising vegetation at the breeding sites. The project was a success with higher numbers of roosting wading birds being recorded.

In January 2004, 39 chicks and 62 Little Tern eggs were removed from the colony site at Sand Spit, Wallaga Lake, 35 km south of Narooma on the far South Coast. It was the site of the state's most successful recovery program for the endangered birds and is protected from natural predators – such as dogs, foxes and cats.

Despite this latest setback, Little Terns have been successfully breeding the length of the NSW coast, from Tuross Heads to Tweed Heads.

Top of page