Te Puru Terns 2

Photo showing Tara/White-fronted Tern tempting a potential mate with a fish — Tara/White-fronted Tern tempting a potential mate with a fish. Fine multitasking skills – flying, presenting fish and applying whitewash!

Following on from last weeks post on the Te Puru Terns, this week we have some images of the mating sequence. I had hoped to document courtship feeding culminating in mating but had to be content with documenting each of these behaviours separately.

Photo of a begging female tern testing her potential partners food supply skills for anticipated chicks. — Begging female tern testing her potential partners food supply skills for anticipated chicks.

Adding the hope for an isolated pair with a relatively undistracting background while photographing a chaotic collection of birds further complicates the situation. The above images show part of the courtship feeding ritual. I have other images of the transfer of the fish but only in a more crowded situation.

This next series of images is of another pair completing the mating sequence, considerately on the edge of the chaos.