Tag: Royal terns

Story and photos by Meredith Wray, CWF Biological Technician

Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) joined New Jersey Fish and Wildlife (NJFW), The Wetlands Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to band royal terns for the third consecutive year in the Garden State this summer. Nesting on the protected shores of Horseshoe Island just outside Little Egg Inlet, these royal terns represent the northernmost colony in the Western Hemisphere for the species. During the 2025 nesting season, the island supported nearly 1,500 breeding adults and successfully fledged 405 chicks. Today, Horseshoe Island remains one of New Jersey’s most important coastal bird nesting sites and is on track to surpass last year’s totals as we begin to finalize data for the 2026 season. Continued management of the island is made possible thanks to the pivotal management rights agreement established in 2022 between the Tidelands Resource Council and NJFW.

Led by NJFW, this year’s banding initiative was a true team effort. Scientists, biologists, conservationists, and technicians from each organization brought their expertise and passion to every step of the process: transporting supplies to the island, orchestrating the safe handling of all birds, keeping watch over chicks, measuring weight, bill length, and wingspan, and carefully recording data.

Royal Tern Quick Facts:

1. Royal terns are seabirds in the Laridae family — which also includes gulls and skimmers — sporting a bright orange bill and shaggy black crest. Highly social by nature, they nest in dense colonies on sandy beaches and isolated islands.
2. Flightless chicks gather into large groups called crèches, almost like a bird daycare, where safety in numbers helps protect them from predators while adults forage. Even in a noisy crowd of thousands, each parent has the special ability to recognize its own chick’s voice when returning with food.

   

3. Royal terns primarily feed on small fish and are known for their precise diving abilities, soaring 20–30 feet before plunging into the water to snag a meal. They can be seen foraging in coastal waters, estuaries, and marshes.
4. Because their breeding range in New Jersey is limited, royal terns are especially vulnerable to habitat loss, human disturbance, and severe coastal storms — which is why their population is closely tracked through ongoing monitoring and banding efforts like this one.
5. Royal terns are typically banded as chicks, shortly before they’re able to fly. At this stage, they have left the nest but have not fledged yet, making it the safest time to handle, process, and release them.

But why is this work so important? And what exactly is bird banding?

What it is: Bird banding is a long-term research tool that helps scientists map migration routes, estimate survival, monitor population health, and better understand how birds respond to changing environmental conditions. By giving each bird a unique identifier, researchers can follow an individual throughout its lifetime, sometimes for more than 30 years!

The bands: Each chick receives two bands: a numbered aluminum band from the federal Bird Banding Laboratory on one leg and a colored plastic band with a unique alphanumeric code on the other. The metal band serves as the bird’s permanent identification number, while the colored band can be read from a distance with binoculars or a spotting scope. The colored band allows researchers and birders alike to identify individual birds from a safe distance without having to capture them again.

How it helps: Every reported sighting throughout a bird’s lifetime provides critical information, even if it might seem insignificant. Data collected helps biologists identify important breeding sites, determine seasonal beach closures, implement habitat protections, and track ongoing population trends.

Conservation success stories like this depend on a network of dedicated partners working toward a common goal, so we look forward to gaining more valuable insights about the New Jersey royal tern population as a result of this collaborative effort. We encourage birders of all ages and levels to keep their eyes peeled for royal terns and their little blue bands! You can make a positive impact by reporting your sightings to NJFW Senior Zoologist Emily Heiser at Emily.Heiser@dep.nj.gov.

Special thanks to Rutgers University Marine Field Station for assisting in the safe transportation of staff to Horseshoe Island.

All handling and banding of birds was completed for research purposes and under appropriate state and federal permits.

In late 2024 we closed out our third year of comprehensive monitoring and management of nesting and migratory birds at Horseshoe Island. The recently formed island, situated just outside the southern edge of Little Egg Inlet, has quickly become one of the most important beach nesting bird sites in New Jersey. 

Each year has presented new challenges and changes on the island and in 2024 there were a number of “firsts” to report. Piping  plovers had previously utilized the island to rest and forage during both the migration and breeding seasons, this was the first year that they nested there. Adding any new nesting site for piping plovers in New Jersey is big news, adding three pairs was even more exciting. Although all three pairs hatched young, no chicks successfully fledged from the island, but we hope to build on that initial success next year.

Horseshoe Island is home to the northernmost royal tern colony in the hemisphere and the colony has grown in size each year. In 2024, CWF joined New Jersey Fish and Wildlife (NJFW) and The Wetlands Institute (TWI) to band royal tern chicks, the first time that royal terns have been banded in the state. With their newly minted blue field readable bands, we are now able to track movements and longevity of “our royals.”  Under NJFW’s direction, adult piping plovers were also banded at Horseshoe for the first time this year. Lastly, led by TWI, black skimmer chicks were once again banded on the island.

The island grew exponentially this year, it is now at least twice the size it was when monitoring began in 2021. The birds took advantage of the expanded habitat, upwards of 1400 state endangered black skimmers nested there in 2024, easily making it the largest skimmer colony in the state. And nearly 600 skimmer chicks fledged from the site, making it the most successful year to date for skimmers on Horseshoe Island. Large least and common tern colonies were also present. And American oystercatchers have increased from 6 to 16 breeding pairs since 2021; 2024 being the most productive year yet with 24 fledglings being recorded. Nearly every part of the island was in use, even more so if you factor in migratory and staging shorebirds that often crowd the tidal zones on the outer edges of the island and the interior lagoons for foraging.

Monitoring and management of the island is done as a partnership between CWF, NJFW, and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. For more information about the island, read the recently released 2024 report.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

This marked the second year that CWF worked in close partnership with New Jersey Fish and Wildlife and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (EBF) to monitor and manage birds on Horseshoe Island. The island, located just offshore on the southern edge of the Little Egg Inlet, has quickly become one of the most important sites for beach nesting birds in the state, as well as a critical resting and feeding site for migratory shorebirds.

Horseshoe Island hosted the state’s largest black skimmer (state endangered) colony this year with just over 1400 total adults or about 700 pairs. Although flooding and some avian predators impacted the overall nesting success at the island, at least 225 skimmer chicks “fledged” from the site. Horseshoe’s skimmer fledglings, along with those from nearby Holgate, a unit of EBF, and especially from Stone Harbor Point in Cape May County, made 2023 a moderately good productivity year for black skimmers in New Jersey.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

Horseshoe Island, located just offshore of Little Beach on the southern edge of the Little Egg Inlet, is teeming with wildlife again this year. Last year, under a five-year Management Rights Agreement secured from the state’s Tidelands Resource Council, the site was closed to the public from March 1- September 30 to benefit wildlife, in particular endangered and at-risk beach nesting birds and migratory shorebirds. The seasonal public closure of the island and its surrounding tidal areas is in place again this season.