The Chinese Crested Tern is a seabird with a black cap and yellow bill that gathers with other terns.
In breeding plumage it has a black cap, a yellow bill with a black tip and a grey back.
Chinese Crested Terns breed on China's coastal islands. Since 2013, conservation work in Zhejiang's Jiushan Archipelago has included banding and recording later sightings. Wang and colleagues analysed 2015–2024 banding and citizen-science records: 116 Chinese Crested Tern resightings and 3,501 for Greater Crested Terns, their common flocking companion. Bands link individual sightings across places and years.
After breeding, Chinese Crested Terns tend to move north, with stopovers at Jiaozhou Bay and Rizhao. Greater Crested Terns tend to move south. Resightings also connected breeding islands in Zhejiang with Matsu in Fujian. The findings point to a yearly cycle that depends on both breeding islands and coastal migration stops.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Resightings show Chinese Crested Terns moving north after breeding, with Jiaozhou Bay and Rizhao among their stopovers. The authors identify both connected breeding islands and coastal stopover sites as conservation priorities.