India GO
River Tern
A sharp, fork-tailed tern with a deep yellow bill. The species has been uplisted to Near Threatened as dams and disturbance eat into the sandbank rivers it breeds on.
👀 How to recognise it
Watch for the hover-and-drop over open water: it stalls, folds and hits the surface bill-first. Grey above, white below, black cap in the breeding months.
Protection
The IUCN raised its threat category in recent assessments.
Where to see it
Mysore
Its fortunes track river management directly: sand mining and released dam water flood the same rock islands the terns need, which is why river terns have become a marker species for the health of peninsular rivers.
Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary
Ajmer
A tern on a city lake is a reminder that Ana Sagar is a working wetland and not an ornamental pond: the same water that carries pedal boats holds enough fish for a breeding tern. The river tern is resident on Ana Sagar and one of the more interesting birds on the lake.
Ana Sagar Lake (often) · Foy Sagar Lake (Varun Sagar)