---
title: "Arctic Tern"
description: "Sterna paradisaea — Uccelli. The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a tern in the family Laridae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/arctic-tern
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Arctic Tern

> Sterna paradisaea — Uccelli. The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a tern in the family Laridae.

- Scientific name: *Sterna paradisaea*
- Category: `birds` (Uccelli)
- Habitats: `sea` (Mare e costa), `arctic` (Artico)
- iNaturalist observations: 11818
- Wikidata: [Q26800](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26800)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4449](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4449)

## Names

- en: Arctic Tern
- de: Küstenseeschwalbe
- es: Charrán ártico
- fr: Sterne arctique
- nl: Noordse stern
- pt: Andorinha-do-mar-ártica
- pl: Rybitwa popielata

## Countries with the most observations

IS (2236), US (2045), RU (1181), GB (842), SJ (698), CA (654), FI (440), NO (303), DE (217), SE (217), FO (96), DK (84)

## Summary

The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and subarctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south as Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates along a convoluted route from its northern breeding grounds to the Antarctic coast for the southern summer and back again about six months later. Recent studies have shown average annual round-trip lengths of about 70,900 km (38,300 nmi) for birds nesting in Iceland and Greenland, and…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_tern

## Photo

![Arctic Tern](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/arctic-tern/medium.jpg)

Photo: steve b · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165224381

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/arctic-tern?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).