The fairy tern – my ‘aumakua
I want to share with you the most charming of Hawaii's seabirds----THE FAIRY TERN!
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...e/fb5a3746.jpg
Quote:
THE FAIRY TERN is a celestial vision: Its silky plumage pure white, its slender wings translucent, its large, black-rimmed eyes the deepest midnight blue. When one hovers above you, all innocent curiosity, you can easily understand why on some tropical islands it is called the Holy Ghost bird.
http://www.nwf.org/internationalwild...998/fairy.html
(The following text is my summary from the above webpage)
The female does not build a nest. Instead she balances her single cream-colored, brown-speckled, slightly spherical egg on branches without so much as a twig, feather or piece of mud to help keep it there. The only thing parent terns do to keep their eggs from rolling to the ground is sit on them. But still, eggs fall all the time. The male and female take turns incubating their egg. Only one-third to one-half of fairy tern eggs laid actually produce chicks. :( Male and female fairy terns look identical, mate for life and live for 16 to 18 years.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/fb5a374f.jpg
Such high-risk hatching is like being born on a swinging trapeze, but the chick arrives prepared for danger. It is a little ball of fluffy down with oversized, long-toed feet and an innate and imperative urge to clamp itself instantly to its natal branch. So strong is its grip that should a gust of wind topple the chick, it will hang upside down, then right itself with frantic cheeping and wild flutterings of tiny wings.
Fairy terns have mastered the neat trick of catching and holding many fish at once without dropping any of them. They fish close to home in offshore waters, usually in late evening or early morning. It is probable that in the soft-gray light of dawn and dusk, a bird's pure- white plumage and translucent wings and tail render it virtually invisible against the softly shining sky. A hunting fairy tern hovers on rapidly vibrating wings above the sea, dives suddenly and snatches a small fish or squid from the surface without ever getting wet. That is an important precaution because, unlike gulls and other seabirds, its delicate plumage is not waterproof.
An adult often returns to its chick with a dozen or more fish, some nearly as long as the chick itself, neatly lined up crosswise in its bill. Maw agape, the youngster swallows the fish headfirst, leaving half out. It digests a part, sits squat--its eyes closed--and swallows convulsively. More fish glides down. Each day, the growing chick can eat about half its weight in food.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...d/fb5a2dd7.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...0/fb5a374c.jpg
“FEED ME!”
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fb5a373b.jpg
For all that, a young fairy tern grows surprisingly slowly. From a roundish ball of brown-gray down, it becomes longer and slimmer and gradually sheds its baby down to reveal the brown-white speckled plumage of a juvenile. Both parents feed their chick until it can fly. Chicks take their first flight at about 7 weeks old, before they've lost all their down or fully grown their wings. They can fish on their own two weeks after that.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fb5a3750.jpg
This Chick is only a week old and measures about six inches high. The little flying fish is approximately the same length as the chick and it took 45 minutes to eat with a few breaks for rest in the exhausting task.
Baby fairy terns are extremely obedient to their mother's commands. When she sees something threatening, such as an approaching dog, she gives a sharp call and they all drop belly down and remain completely immobile, like a stone. They don't move till they hear the "all clear" call. They don't move even if you pick them up and put them back in almost any position.
Quote:
One of the physical features that makes these seabirds so lovable is a ring of black feathers surrounding each dark blue eye. This gives the birds a wide-eyed, innocent look that can melt even the coldest heart.
The rest of the album can be viewed at: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289366497
