(Homonym: turn).
Small slender gull having narrow wings and a forked tail.
Any of various lightly built seabirds placed in the same family (Laridae) as gulls and characterized by pointed wings and bill and usually a forked tail. Terns plunge-dive after aquatic prey. They are 20–50 cm/8–20 in long, and usually colored in combinations of white and black.
The common tern Sterna hirundo has white underparts, gray upper wings, and a black crown on its head. The Arctic tern Sterna paradisea migrates from northern parts of Greenland, North America, and Europe to the Antarctic.