Whiskered Tern are 25 cm long and are a slightly smaller, light-colored terns. The abdomen is dark(summer) and the tail is shallow. Breeding period: frontal black, chest and abdomen gray. Non-breeding period: frontal white, with fine lines on the top of the head, black on the back of the top and neck, white on the lower body, gray on the wings, neck, back and tail. The young bird resembles an adult bird but has brown speckle, which is different from the non-breeding white-winged floating gulls on the top of the head, gray waist, and no black cheek pattern.
It inhabits open plain lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, coasts and nearby swamps. Sometimes it also appears over small canals, ponds and agricultural fields near large lakes and rivers. Breeding in southern Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, East to the Russian Far East. Wintering in southern Africa, Indochina, Indonesia and Australia.
