page_title: List of birds of Tennessee
section_title: Gulls, terns and skimmers
hierarchical_section_title: List of birds of Tennessee / Gulls, terns and skimmers
context_page_description: This list of birds of Tennessee includes species documented in the U.S. state of Tennessee and accepted by the Tennessee Bird Records Committee of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. As of February 2020, 423 species were on the official list. Of them, 41 are considered accidental, 30 are considered casual, and 13 are labeled provisional as defined below. Five species were introduced to North America, two are extinct, and three have been extirpated.
  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 Tennessee as permanent residents, summer or winter visitors, or migrants. These tags are used to annotate some species:
  Accidental – a "very rare and unpredictable vagrant" per the TBRC
  Casual – a species which "occurs with some frequency but not every year" per the TBRC
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. Twenty-six species have been recorded in Tennessee.
  Black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla (A)
  Ivory gull, Pagophila eburnea (A)
  Sabine’s gull, Xema sabini (A)
  Bonaparte's gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia
  Black-headed gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus (A)
  Little gull, Hydrocoleus minutus (A)
  Laughing gull, Leucophaeus atricilla
  Franklin's gull, Leucophaeus pipixcan
  Ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis
  California gull, Larus californicus (A)
  Herring gull, Larus argentatus
  Iceland gull, Larus glaucoides (A)
  Lesser black-backed gull, Larus fuscus
  Glaucous gull, Larus hyperboreus (A)
  Great black-backed gull, Larus marinus (C)
  Brown noddy, Anous stolidus (A) (P)
  Sooty tern, Onychoprion fuscatus (A)
  Least tern, Sternula antillarum
  Gull-billed tern, Gelochelidon nilotica (A) (P)
  Caspian tern, Hydroprogne caspia
  Black tern, Chlidonias niger
  Common tern, Sterna hirundo
  Arctic tern, Sterna paradisaea (A) (P)
  Forster's tern, Sterna forsteri
  Royal tern, Thalasseus maximus (A) (P)
  Black skimmer, Rhyncops niger (A)
caption: Ring-billed gull
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