Sandwich tern Thalasseus sandvicensis, a common but local summer resident of the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Sandwich Tern is easily identified because it is the only ââ¬Åcrestedââ¬Â tern with a black bill. It is also one of the most gregarious and colonial of all birds during the breeding season. Found almost exclusively along coastal areas and offshore islands, a nesting colony of Sandwich Terns conjures up a chaotic scene: Birds arriving and departing every second, neighbors no more than a bill length apart squabbling over territorial rights, fish changing ownership between males and females and between parents and their young, a pervasive odor of seabird guano in the air, and the deafening chatter that is characteristic of a few thousand birds crammed into a few square meters of nesting habitat.
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