Home / Environment / Rare Tern Breeds in Netherlands After 60 Years
Rare Tern Breeds in Netherlands After 60 Years
7 Sep
Summary
- A rare gull-billed tern successfully bred in the Netherlands.
- The last recorded breeding attempt in the Netherlands was in 1958.
- The nesting site was discovered on the protected Marker Wadden islands.
Decades after its last recorded success, a gull-billed tern has been found breeding in the Netherlands. This rare occurrence was confirmed with the hatching of a chick on Marker Wadden, an island area inaccessible to ordinary visitors. The discovery was made by ecologists studying Kentish plovers, who noticed the tern and subsequently found its nest.
The nesting site was immediately protected by conservationists to ensure the bird and its young were undisturbed. This event is particularly significant as gull-billed terns are uncommon in northern Europe due to limited breeding and feeding grounds. The successful nesting in 2020 provides definitive evidence of breeding in the Netherlands, a rarity not seen since 1958.
Marker Wadden, the location of this natural event, is a large-scale nature-restoration project initiated in 2016. It involves creating islands using materials from the Markermeer lake, aiming to establish diverse habitats for threatened flora and fauna. The arrival of the gull-billed tern adds an unexpected but welcome dimension to the project's conservation goals.
