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The UK Bird Atlas

Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Vagrant · reporting peaks January · Skimmers, Noddies, Terns, and Gulls · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Lesser Crested Tern (Thalasseus bengalensis)
Heshamsamir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Too few records to rate squares by month. Each marked square has at least one record; the table below gives the count and years.

Lesser Crested Tern: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Lesser Crested Tern has been recorded in 9 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (0%) in records to 2026. Vagrant in the UK. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List

Records by 10 km square

SquareWhereRecordsYearsVerified
SX98Devon, England62025unverified
SX97Devon, England22025unverified
TG04Norfolk, England82005unverified
TG42Norfolk, England72005unverified
TG33Norfolk, England62005unverified
TM46Suffolk, England42005unverified
TG50Norfolk, England12005unverified
TM34Suffolk, England12005unverified
TG14Norfolk, England12005unverified

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.