The tern is constantly circling in the air and seldom sits on the water. It eats aquatic insects: small dragon-flies and bugs, slugs and mosquitoes, locust and crickets, and sometimes even small fish. To find food, this bird is flying 30 - 50 cm high above water or marsh. On the fly, the tern tackles insects from stems, from the ground or water surface. Sometimes the birds are chasing food above wheat and barley crops catching dragon-flies and cereal chafers: they catch them not only in the air, but from spikes, as well. These birds can even fly behind the plough along the ribs to be able to immediately grab worms and insects maggots.

To nest, the white-winged tern uses fresh leaves and green stems, as well as small floating ‘islands’ of dead grass. It builds its ‘house’ on the laid water plants or on small hummocks. The terns start breeding after they get two years old, and they lay three eggs once per season. However, the time of laying eggs depends on the environmental conditions: favorable spring weather and aquatic vegetation. In good weather eggs may be laid as early as mid-May, but more often — by the end of the month. The nestlings leave the nest after 2-4 days upon hatching, they scatter and skulk. The adults bring them food for 9-12 days. After 18–22 days the nestlings can start flying, and after another week they leave their parents and start migrating across the places where they can find food.