One of only three Iowa bird species on the Federal Threatened and Endangered species list, the interior population of Least Terns is currently considered endangered both at the federal and the state level. This, the smallest of Iowa’s terns, originally nested on sandbars on the Missouri River where it was first noted by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. With the drastic alteration of the flow of the Missouri River, those sandbars have largely disappeared and in recent decades in Iowa the species has only been found nesting on fly ash deposits at power plants near Council Bluffs and Sioux City. Besides their small size, the yellow bill and white forehead are other key field characteristics of this species.
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indicates a designated IBA.