The North American subspecies of Black Tern flies over freshwater wetlands during breeding and catches small fish and insects.
Breeding adults of the North American subspecies have black heads and underparts with dark gray backs and wings. In nonbreeding plumage, the head becomes mostly white with a dark patch behind the eye.
In North America, it breeds in loose groups in large freshwater wetlands, placing its nest on floating vegetation. It flies slowly to take small fish or insects from the water and migrates to tropical coasts after breeding.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.