White-winged Tern

The white-winged tern, or white-winged black tern, is a small marsh tern. Summer adults have short red legs, a short, stubby black bill, a black head, neck and belly, a very dark grey back, a white rump and an almost white tail, and wings that are mainly white, as the name says. In non-breeding plumage most of the black is replaced by white or pale grey, but a good deal of black remains on the underwing coverts, and the head shows a blackish, white-flecked crown and a dark patch in front of the eye (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds on freshwater marshes from south-eastern Europe to Central Asia and the Russian Far East, nesting on floating vegetation or on the ground close to water and laying two to four eggs in a nest of reed stems and plants. It migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia for the winter and is generally found in or near fresh water. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant in India but gives no trend or priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).