---
title: "Zwarte stern"
description: "Chlidonias niger — Vogels. The black tern (Chlidonias niger) is a small tern generally found in or near inland water that breeds in Europe, Western Asia and North America."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/black-tern
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Zwarte stern

> Chlidonias niger — Vogels. The black tern (Chlidonias niger) is a small tern generally found in or near inland water that breeds in Europe, Western Asia and North America.

- Scientific name: *Chlidonias niger*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 20023
- Wikidata: [Q27215](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27215)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4512](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4512)

## Names

- en: Black Tern
- de: Trauerseeschwalbe
- es: Charrán negro
- fr: Guifette noire
- nl: Zwarte stern
- pt: Gaivina-preta
- pl: Rybitwa czarna

## Countries with the most observations

US (6793), RU (4899), CA (2346), MX (553), DE (343), IT (321), UA (309), FR (231), ES (229), NL (220), PL (218), GB (163)

## Summary

The black tern (Chlidonias niger) is a small tern generally found in or near inland water that breeds in Europe, Western Asia and North America. In winter the birds migrate to coastal areas of Africa and South America.

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

## Photo

![Zwarte stern](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/black-tern/medium.jpg)

Photo: steve b · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/160211852

## Machine access

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