NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Yellow-billed Tern
Sternula superciliaris (Vieillot, 1819)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The yellow-billed tern (Sternula superciliaris) is a small seabird found in South America. It is a species of tern in the family Laridae.
It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Its natural habitats are rivers, swamps, and freshwater lakes.
Wikipedia contributors, Yellow-billed tern; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:16:13.091213+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Sternula superciliaris (Vieillot, 1819)
- Name authority
- (Vieillot, 1819)
- Common name
- Yellow-billed Tern
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- Genus
- Sternula
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyLaridae
- genusSternula F. Boie, 1822
- speciesSternula superciliaris (Vieillot, 1819)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Sternula. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Peruvian TernSternula lorata (Philippi & Landbeck, 1861) | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Australian Fairy TernSternula nereis Gould, 1843 | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Saunders's TernSternula saundersi (Hume, 1877) | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Little TernSternula albifrons (Pallas, 1764) | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Least TernSternula antillarum R. Lesson, 1847 | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Damara TernSternula balaenarum Strickland, 1853 | LaridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Sterna superciliaris Vieillot, 1819 Vieillot, 1819 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=824132 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:52G2B. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.