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Priority Species Spotlight: Little Tern
Find out why Little Terns are in trouble and how we’re turning the tide for these tiny seabirds.
Conservation StatusAmber(Birds of Conservation Concern)
Population StatusDeclining
Main Threatsdisturbance, habitat loss, climate change, predation
Get to know Little Terns
As their name suggests, Little Terns are the UK’s smallest species of tern, weighing in at just 40 to 60g – that’s about the same as a tennis ball. Yet despite their size, these tiny terns fly all the way from West Africa each spring to nest on our coasts, before flying back again in late summer. The oldest known Little Tern was 27 years old, which means it would have flown a staggering 200,000 miles in its lifetime, at least!
Fishy gifts
Forget roses and chocolates, when a male Little Tern wants to woo a partner, he’ll present her with a fish. If she’s suitably impressed by his gift, the pair will couple up and raise their chicks together.
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Why are Little Terns in trouble?
Since the 1980s, Little Terns have declined by 39% across the UK and Ireland and they’re now our second rarest breeding seabird. So, what’s been going wrong?
The truth is that lots of factors have had a role in their decline – let’s take a look at each of them in turn:
Instead of building their nests in trees or bushes like many birds, Little Terns nest on beaches and lay their perfectly camouflaged eggs directly on the sand or shingle. While blending in with the beach helps hide the eggs and chicks from predators, it also means they’re vulnerable to being trampled by unsuspecting beachgoers.
Humans and dogs seem like big scary predators to Little Terns and if they get too close adults could flee their nest, leaving their eggs and chicks at risk from extreme temperatures and predators. As our beaches get ever busier with visitors and their furry friends, it’s becoming harder and harder for Little Terns to find a safe, quiet place to raise their families.
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In the UK, we’ve lost 46% of our shingle habitats since 1945, reducing the number of suitable nesting sites for Little Terns. With increased development and erosion along our coastlines, terns are being squeezed out.
Climate change is also having an impact on Little Terns, as a result of sea level rise and an increase in extreme weather. For example, heavy rain and flooding in summer can wash away eggs and chicks, while in winter, storms can destroy nesting habitat that would have been used the following spring. Little Terns hunt by sight and so summer storms can also make the sea’s surface too rough for the terns to locate and catch fish. On top of all of this, rising sea temperatures are also affecting the quality of the fish, such as sandeels, that Little Terns feed on, so they contain less energy. This makes it harder for the terns to provide enough food for their hungry chicks.
As ground-nesting birds, Little Terns are vulnerable to both land predators, such as Foxes and Badgers, as well as aerial predators, including gulls and birds of prey. Although some predation is natural, because of habitat loss and disturbance, Little Terns have been forced to congregate in fewer, larger colonies, making them an easier target for predators.
How is the RSPB helping Little Terns?
Because Little Terns are facing so many different threats, there isn’t a single, simple solution to their decline. Instead, we have lots of different conservation techniques in our toolkit:
Protecting existing nesting sites
Protecting Little Terns is a big challenge, especially on busy, public beaches. So we have dedicated teams of RSPB staff and volunteers who find Little Tern nests and watch over the birds throughout the breeding season at a number of sites, including sites in Norfolk and Dorset. These volunteer teams are part of the Species Volunteer Network, an RSPB project aimed at supporting volunteers across the country working to save some of our most vulnerable species.
Our beach wardens also do lots of public engagement work to help raise awareness of the Little Terns’ plight, and they put up temporary fencing to keep people and dogs away from the most sensitive areas.
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Creating more safe habitat
With safe nesting habitat now in such short supply, as well as protecting existing sites, we’re also creating new habitat, to give Little Terns more places to call home.
For example, as part of the EU-funded LIFE on the Edge project, we’ve raised the level of the eroding beach at Horsey Island in Essex, using almost 50,000 cubic metres of sand and shingle from harbour improvement works at Harwich. As a result, the eggs and chicks of Little Terns and other beach-nesting birds should now be safely out of reach of high tides for years to come. Little Terns were quick to move onto the new habitat after its creation and in 2023, we celebrated a bumper year, with 42 chicks fledging from Horsey Island – the highest number since 2006!
Keeping terns safe from predators
We put up fences around Little Tern colonies to help protect them from ground predators and at some sites we even have night wardens to keep an eye on the terns once darkness falls and predators, like Foxes, are more active.
Although fences help to protect against threats at ground level, they’re no use against avian predators, such as Kestrels, which will take Little Tern chicks for their own young – particularly if the availability of other prey, such as small mammals, is low. To tackle this, we have trialled ‘diversionary feeding’, which involves providing alternative food for the Kestrels. Our results show that this technique is effective at reducing predation at Little Tern colonies and increasing the number of chicks that successfully fledge, making it a useful addition to our conservation toolkit.
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Campaigning for the closure of sandeel fisheries
Both climate change and over-fishing are reducing the amount of food available for seabirds like Little Terns, so we’ve been campaigning for decades, alongside our partners and supporters, for an end to industrial sandeel fishing. In 2024, the UK and Scottish Governments announced the closure of sandeel fisheries in the English North Sea and all Scottish waters and, despite a challenge from the EU, the closure was upheld in 2025. It’s an amazing win for wildlife and will offer Little Terns and other threatened seabirds, such as Puffins, a real lifeline.
Is there anything I can do to help Little Terns?
If you’re heading to a beach where Little Terns nest (between April to August) you can help keep them safe by following these simple tips:
- Watch your step and keep an eye out for eggs and chicks in the sand.
- Pay attention to signs and fences, and avoid nesting areas.
- Watch the birds from a distance.
- Keep dogs on leads – even if your dog doesn’t chase wildlife, please use a lead to encourage others to do the same.
If you’re interested in volunteering to help protect Little Terns, we’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch with the Species Volunteer Network at speciesvolunteernetwork@rspb.org.uk to find out more about potential opportunities near you.
Taking species on a journey to recovery
Helping species to reach a healthy conservation status is a journey. Each journey is tailored to the species in question, but shares four stages:
1. DiagnosisIdentifying there's a problem, and researching to find out what's causing it
2. Testing solutionsDeveloping practical solutions and trialling them to make sure they work
3. RecoveryProviding these solutions across the whole range of the species
4. Long-term legacyReaching improved conservation status and securing a long-term legacy for the species’ recovery
Testing Solutions
Our work to help Little Terns is at the Testing Solutions stage of the recovery curve. During this stage, we identify which conservation actions will help a species to recover. The solutions we have been testing appear to be working, with signs of a modest population recovery. It’s now essential that we keep up our work to protect Little Terns, so that we can turn the tide for these threatened birds.
Find out more
Little Terns have been the focus of many partnership projects run by the RSPB, including:
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Save our seabirds
We’re at risk of losing some seabird species in just a few decades. Be part of the team tackling their biggest threats.
Thank you!
We’d like to say a big thank you to all of the amazing volunteers who offer their time to protect Little Terns – without their presence at nesting sites, to raise awareness and protect nests, these birds would struggle to find a safe space to raise their chicks.
We’re also very grateful for the support of the thousands of people who joined our call for an end to industrial sandeel fishing – there’s no doubt that this groundswell of support was instrumental in achieving such a huge win for wildlife.
Our vital work for Little Terns is made possible thanks to the generous and ongoing support of RSPB members and supporters, as well the LIFE Programme, Action for Birds in England and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.