THE WHITE-FRONTED TERN
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with wood engravings by
To yachtsmen and fishermen, the I “ kahawai bird,” or to give the name by which it is known in books, the White-fronted' Tern, is a well-known companion of many a sundrenched day on sparkling summer seas. Terns are relations of the gulls, of more streamlined build, feeding on surface fish rather than scavenging, and obtaining their food by dipping into the water from the air instead of swimming on the surface of the water. The commonest New Zealand tern is the subject of this article, and is distinguished from others of his kind in this country by the band of white feathers separating the neat black cap (which most terns wear) from the bill, which is black and not red or brown as in other New Zealand terns. Let us try to follow the tern throughout the months of the year. In September and October kahawai birds resort to small rocky islets off the coast or, at times, to shingle and sand bars at the mouths of estuaries to nest. Such breeding colonies are found from the Three Kings Islands in the far north to the outlying Chatham and Auckland Islands to the east and south. Deserted coal hulks and barges in the Auckland Harbour are other nesting places, safe 'from the ravages of cats and rats if sometimes within the range of marauding school-boys.
Little or no nest is built, and the time of preparation for the arrival of eggs is spent in elaborate courtship rites. The newly moulted terns have developed long “ streamer ” feathers margining the tail, which takes on a most exaggerated swallow-like appearance. The male catches a small fish, pilchard, or sprat, and, with this in his bill, bows at his mate, mockingly offers it to her, and struts around her, interspersing, no doubt, well - chosen words in the somewhat unmelodious vocabulary of the terns. One, two, or three eggs are laid on the surface of rock or sand with little semblance of a nest. They are brown with a great variety of purplish-black blotches and pencillings and are noticeably pear-shaped. When nesting is in full swing a visit to a tern colony is an experience never to be forgotten. Sparkling white birds hurl themselves at one with the tactics of a dive bomber ; others stand guard by their eggs and cry defiance at the intruder; chicks scuttle like rats over the guano-whitened surface of the rocks, or huddle in a crannie, where their mottled down renders them almost invisible. It is sometimes difficult, in the confusion, not to tread on eggs. Throughout the summer months when the parents are collecting food for chicks, they may be seen at sea making
purposeful flights to and from the feeding grounds, or assembled in flocks like snowflakes over shoaling fish. It is then that the name “ kahawai bird ” is appropriate ; fishermen know well that a flock of birds “ working ” actively over an agitated patch of water is a sign that kahawai or kingfish are likely to be about, attracted by the same shoals of surface fish which are the prey of the birds.
The well-grown young in midsummer, have prettily striped upper plumage, and follow their parents away from the nesting colonies to nearby
beaches, where they continue to beg food until February or March, when the moult of the old birds puts a stop to their nursemaid’s duties. There are vast casualties throughout the season from storm
and accident, and it is seldom that there are even half as many chicks as there are pairs of adults in the summer flocks : in one case 186 parents had produced only 25 young.
In the winter months terns may continue to frequent shores and sandy beaches at the mouths of rivers such as the Waikanae and Ohau in Wellington, or at Manukau and Kaipara Heads in Auckland. Nevertheless, the kahawai bird seems scarcer in winter than at other times, and there are areas where it is reported to be absent altogether. In Australia, where this tern has not been found breeding, numbers have been recorded in the winter, and it seems likely that some of our New Zealand birds wander across the South Tasman to the Bass Strait area in the winter.
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Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 24, 29 January 1945, Page 20
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711THE WHITE-FRONTED TERN Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 24, 29 January 1945, Page 20
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