Forster's Tern is a graceful marsh tern very similar to the Common Tern, and telling the two apart is a familiar identification challenge in Michigan. In breeding plumage Forster's is a bit paler and frostier, with silvery-white, translucent-looking wingtips (the Common's are darker), a more orange bill, and longer tail streamers. In fall and winter the difference is easier: Forster's shows a bold black patch through the eye rather than a full black cap, giving it a distinctive masked look. It hovers over the water and plunge-dives for small fish and insects.
Unlike the colony-nesting Common and Caspian Terns of open beaches, Forster's Tern is more of a marsh bird, nesting on mats of floating vegetation and muskrat houses in freshwater and brackish marshes. In Michigan it breeds locally in larger marshes and is seen along marshy lake edges and Great Lakes shorelines from spring through fall. Its preference for marsh habitat and its frosty wingtips and masked winter face help separate it from its close relatives.
Feeds on small fish and aquatic insects, hovering over the water and plunge-diving to catch fish and also hawking insects in flight over marshes. It forages over marshy water and shorelines, taking prey at or just below the surface.
In breeding plumage Forster's is frostier, with silvery-white wingtips (the Common's are darker), a more orange bill, and longer tail streamers. In fall and winter, Forster's shows a black eye-patch rather than a full black cap on the nape, which is the easiest mark.
Unlike beach-nesting terns, Forster's Tern nests in marshes, using mats of floating vegetation and muskrat houses. In Michigan it breeds locally in larger freshwater and brackish marshes.
Over marshes, marshy lake edges, and along Great Lakes shorelines from spring through fall, where it hovers and plunge-dives for small fish. It favors marshier settings than the Common and Caspian Terns.
That is nonbreeding or immature plumage — the black cap contracts into an isolated dark patch through the eye, which is the classic way to tell winter Forster's from Common Terns.
Yes — loose colonies in cattail marshes, usually on muskrat houses or floating mats. Away from the colony they feed in scattered groups over open marsh and lake edges.
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