Head to head
Sooty Tern vs Arctic Tern
The sooty tern and Arctic tern both push the limits of endurance flight, but in very different ways and across very different parts of the planet.
| Sooty Tern | Arctic Tern | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Onychoprion fuscatus | Sterna paradisaea |
| Record held | Years airborne without landing | Longest migration of any animal |
| Climate zone | Tropical | Polar to polar |
| Annual distance | Not precisely tracked | Up to ~90,000 km round trip |
| Plumage | Sooty black and white | Pale grey, black cap |
| Conservation status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Population trend | Stable | Decreasing |
| Habitat | Ocean, coastal | Polar, coastal, ocean |
Sooty Tern vs Arctic Tern: common questions
Which is the more extreme flying record, the sooty tern or the Arctic tern?
Both hold genuinely extreme records in different categories: the sooty tern can remain continuously airborne for years without landing, while the Arctic tern makes the longest migration of any animal, a round trip of up to 90,000 kilometres a year between the poles.
Why does the Arctic tern migrate so far while the sooty tern stays mostly in the tropics?
The Arctic tern travels between the Arctic and Antarctic to experience two polar summers and abundant food at each end of the Earth, while the sooty tern remains within tropical waters year-round, relying on continuous flight rather than a pole-to-pole migration to sustain itself.
Do the sooty tern and Arctic tern ever land on the water?
The sooty tern rarely lands on the water, snatching prey from near the surface while remaining in flight, while the Arctic tern does rest on the water and on floating ice during its long migration, using these breaks to help sustain such an extreme journey.