Gull-billed Tern

The gull-billed tern is a fairly large, powerful tern, similar in size to a Sandwich tern, but with a short, thick gull-like bill, broad wings, long legs and a robust body. It is 33 to 42 cm long with a wingspan of 76 to 91 cm. The summer adult has grey upperparts, white underparts, a black cap, and a strong black bill and legs. The call is a characteristic ker-wik (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in scattered places in Europe, Asia, north-west Africa and the Americas, and five subspecies are recognised. The Australian form was previously counted as a subspecies (Wikipedia, general species account).