The Gull-billed Tern is a graceful medium size tern, pale gray and white bird with long wings, a distinctive thick black bill (like a gull’s, hence the name), and a black cap in summer, it hunts insects and small creatures in marshes and over wet fields by skimming over the surface rather than surface diving or plunged diving for fish like most other terns.

It is an uncommon migratory tern throughout West Malaysia, but at Teluk Air Tawar – Kuala Muda IBA is a frequent visitor, sometime in small flocks. It is far more common at the North Central Selangor Coast IBA .