In the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th, tern colonies were decimated by the millinery trade, which used their elegant white feathers as adornments for hats. The primary threat to roseate terns in the Northeast United States today is usurpation of their nesting areas by gulls. Populations of herring gulls and great black-backed gulls have increased along the Atlantic Coast, and the larger, more aggressive gulls have displaced terns from many of the offshore islands and barrier beaches where they once nested. Moreover, gulls are voracious consumers of tern eggs, nestlings and adult birds.
The Arctic tern is called the bird of summer because it follows the long days of summer around the globe. It breeds in the Arctic and migrates to the Antarctic, traveling between 22,000 and 25,000 miles each year.