Wild Bird Wednesday 178 - White Terns

These remarkable birds were some of the first that I photographed on Lord Howe.  I would be reasonable to say that I got very excited when I first saw them!

Although you may not be able to tell from the pictures, these birds can actually fly and do not spend all of their time sat on branches looking photogenic! I was pointed in the direction of some birds which were nesting on some low branches and got absolutely wonderful views of them.

What makes these pictures all the more remarkable is the the set of pictures showing the bird on the large pale branch, show the bird sitting on an egg!  There is not nest at all, just maybe a slight depression in the branch under the bird - and that's it! They lay the egg on the branch, incubate the egg on the branch and raise the chick on the branch!  I tried to out-wait this bird to get some evidence of the egg, but its patience was better then mine.  Maybe next time!

The White Tern is also called Gygis alba which means "mystery white bird" - although why this bird is a called a mystery bird, is a mystery in itself!  The white bit makes perfect sense, although I am surprised the the colour of the beak did not get some kind of mention.

Like other terns this bird is a wonderfully fast and agile flyer, and I managed to get not a single decent image of them in flight - as I said above 'maybe next time'.

Sitting on its egg

Sitting on its egg

Sitting on its egg

The eyes of these birds are not as huge as they look - there is a ring of dark feathers around the eye that makes it look larger than it really is.

I saved these images for this week, as I thought that there was something just a little Christmassy about these wonderful birds!

Hope you all have had a good year, and that WBW played a small part in that goodness.  WBW will be back next week for the last time in 2015.  So, click the blue button and off you go!

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