[3] A medium-sized tern with an all-white body including underwing and forked tail, with pale grey hues on the mantle and upper side of the wing.

Breeding occurs from October to January on rocky cliffs, offshore islands and along the coast where pairs will nest on shingle, sand, shell or rock.

The white-fronted 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.

[5] Gmelin based his description on the "striated tern" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds.

[6] The drawing had been made by William Wade Ellis from a specimen collected in 1777 off the southeast coast of New Zealand's North Island on James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific Ocean.

[12] Breaking down their monochromatic colouring, the white-fronted tern's lightest features are its all-white body, tail and underwing,[13][2] with the upper side of the wings a light silvery-grey hue.

[12] The darkest features are the beak, black cap, eyes, feet and the shadowing on the outermost edge of the wingtips.

[13] The long ebony-like bill is slender and comes to a sharp point that dulls in colour at the tip.

[12][4] The black cap of non-breeding adults retreats towards the top of the forehead and above the eyes, and at the same time losing some of its intensity.

[12] The juvenile plumage is very pronounced with flecks of light to dark grey and warm milky browns on the upper side of the wing, back, and mantle.

[2][12][4] In the North Island, there are significant populations from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty including the Coromandel Peninsula[3] and they are widespread along the coast from Wellington, up towards Manawatu.

[3] In the South Island, they are a familiar sight in the Marlborough Sounds[16] and along the east coast into Canterbury, Otago and Southland, where they can be seen year-round.

[2] They seldom head inland, but there have been recordings of them in the Canterbury area, where they travel up the large braided rivers to feed and nest.

[3] With large flocks preferring coastal waters, harbours, bays and estuaries where they are content to live on either sand, shell or shingle ground.

The pair takes to the air together following one another in a magnificent flight display, signifying successful courtship.

The nest site may already have a nest-like shape to it, but sometimes small stones can be brought in to furnish the bottom of the hollow.

[2] It can be up to a week before the chicks leave the nest and join others in a crèche; here they have protection due to the more substantial numbers, while adults are away foraging for food.

[2] However, in autumn large numbers of juveniles and some adults migrate across the Tasman Sea, arriving on the south-east coast of Australia, where they become a common sight from May to November before returning to New Zealand.

[2] Adults will moult twice a year, post-breeding which occurs over 6 months from January to early August and pre-breeding that starts around May/June, finishing in July/August.

[3] Pre-breeding moult is where the adult's black cap will extend further down the forehead, leaving only the small band of white across the top of its bill.

However, on the odd occasion they will head inland a few kilometres, following rivers and creeks to find food.

[4] Their preference when feeding at sea is for shoaling fish, that are being forced to the surface in large groups by kahawai and kingfish.

[2] Despite living and breeding in groups with large numbers that are tightly packed together, it seldom offers them any extra protection from the intruding attackers.