page_title: List of birds of New Jersey
section_title: Gulls, terns, and skimmers
hierarchical_section_title: List of birds of New Jersey / Gulls, terns, and skimmers
caption_attribution_description: California Least Tern
context_page_description: This list of birds of New Jersey includes species credibly documented in the U.S. state of New Jersey and accepted by the New Jersey Bird Records Committee as of October 2019. There are 480 species and two species pairs included in the official list. Six additional species of uncertain origin are also included in this page.
  This list is presented in the taxonomic sequence of the Check-list of North and Middle American Birds, 7th edition through the 61st Supplement, published by the American Ornithological Society. Common and scientific names are also those of the Check-list, except that the common names of families are from the Clements taxonomy because the AOS list does not include them.
  Unless otherwise noted, all species listed below are considered to occur regularly in New Jersey as permanent residents, summer or winter visitors, or migrants. These tags are used to annotate some species:
  Rare or accidental - Review List; birds that if observed require more comprehensive documentation than regularly seen species
  Review List, in part - "Identifiable form/race/subspecies, seen from shore, etc." per the NJBRC
  Extinct - a recent species that no longer exists
context_section_description: Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Laridae
  Laridae is a family of medium to large seabirds and includes gulls, terns, kittiwakes, and skimmers. They are typically gray or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They have stout, longish bills and webbed feet. Thirty-six species have been recorded in New Jersey.
  Black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla
  Ivory gull, Pagophila eburnea (R)
  Sabine's gull, Xema sabini (R)
  Bonaparte's gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia
  Black-headed gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus
  Little gull, Hydrocoloeus minutus
  Ross's gull, Rhodostethia rosea (R)
  Laughing gull, Leucophaeus atricilla
  Franklin's gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan (R)
  Black-tailed gull, Larus crassirostris (R)
  Mew gull, Larus canus (R)
  Ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis
  California gull, Larus californicus (R)
  Herring gull, Larus argentatus
  Iceland gull, Larus glaucoides
  Lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus
  Glaucous gull, Larus hyperboreus
  Great black-backed gull, Larus marinus
  Brown noddy, Anous stolidus (R)
  Sooty tern, Onychoprion fuscatus (R)
  Bridled tern, Onychoprion anaethetus (R*)
  Least tern, Sternula antillarum
  Large-billed tern, Phaetusa simplex (R)
  Gull-billed tern, Gelochelidon nilotica
  Caspian tern, Hydroprogne caspia
  Black tern, Chlidonias niger
  White-winged tern, Chlidonias leucopterus (R)
  Whiskered tern, Chlidonias hybrida (R)
  Roseate tern, Sterna dougallii
  Common tern, Sterna hirundo
  Arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea (R)
  Arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea
  Forster's tern, Sterna forsteri
  Royal tern, Thalasseus maximus
  Sandwich tern, Thalasseus sandvicensis
  Elegant tern, Thalasseus elegans (R)
  Black skimmer, Rynchops niger
caption: Least tern
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