It has occurred as a vagrant in Aruba, Bermuda, Cuba, Panama and the United States.

The large-billed tern was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[2] Gmelin based his description on the "simple tern" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds from a specimen that had been collected in Cayenne, French Guiana.

Phaetusa (or Heliades) was sister to Phaethon and one of the daughters of Phoebus (Helios) and Clymene.

The crown and ear-coverts are black, the upperparts are grey, the secondaries, primary coverts, lores and underparts are white.