Meet The Locals: California Least Tern

Sterna antillarum browni

Tucked deep within the recovering wetland that is the Hayward Regional Shoreline, a small patch of sand and old oyster shells makes a home for a rare and somewhat mysterious bird — the California least tern. These birds, who wander open oceans for much of the year, call the California coastline their home during the spring and summer months. While they may be most common across San Diego County, in some of the Bay Area's quieter, often overlooked places are where the least terns have made the Bay a new and slowly growing home.

These birds stand no more than ten inches tall and are the smallest of the terns. A group of these birds often are mistaken for gulls. Their wings and tails, capped in black, come to fine tips like their bright yellow dagger-like beaks. The birds were described lovingly as “little angels hovering above the wind and waves” by least tern conservationist David Riensche in Oaklandside. 

Since 1970 the California least tern has been listed as endangered. Preferring beaches and boggy islands amidst water like the Hayward Regional Shoreline and Alameda Beach, the encroachment of real estate and industry, like many other species, has greatly damaged their breeding areas across the state. However, it's in the Bay Area that they have found a haven. Just to the south of Alameda Beach, past a small fence is Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, tucked in front of beachside homes and one of the more popular East Bay beaches in the summertime. This is one of the larger colonies of California least terns, which is meticulously weeded of invasive species and looked after each year by volunteers. And then in the often overlooked Hayward Regional Shoreline, at an island created in the early 2000s by volunteers with only sand and oyster shells, there is Island Five, now lovingly dubbed “Tern Town, USA” with the fastest growing population in the state. 

Our presence, to degrees, shapes, shifts, and hurts the neighbors for whom we share this land. For some who see the harm we have done to the natural world, the desire to preserve the land where these endangered animals still thrive feels paramount. The act of care for the land, then, must come first. “Tern Town, USA” is one of these first acts.