Warbla · Library
Royal Tern
Thalasseus maximus · Family Laridae
Thalasseus maximus
Family Laridae
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- GBIF occurrence records
- 1,419,506
- Countries and territories with records
- 83
About this species
This species has 1,419,506 occurrence records from 83 countries and territories (GBIF, 21 October 2026). Most records come from the United States (78.3%), Mexico (5.3%), Costa Rica (2.3%), Puerto Rico (1.7%) and Cuba (1.1%); together they account for 88.7% of the total. In the United States, this species accounts for 0.1% of all bird records in GBIF.
The scientific name Thalasseus maximus combines the genus name Thalasseus with the species epithet maximus. The Warbla app catalog lists 7 species of the genus Thalasseus; apart from this one, those with the most GBIF records are Thalasseus sandvicensis, Thalasseus bergii and Thalasseus elegans.
The catalog has GBIF record counts for 101 species of the family Laridae. This species ranks 17th among them; the family’s most-recorded species is Larus delawarensis. Its record count is 1.6 times the family average (874,525). The family Laridae belongs to the order Charadriiformes, which has 340 species in the Warbla app catalog.