Elegant tern

by Bryan Keil

Title

Elegant tern

Artist

Bryan Keil

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The Elegant Tern according to Wikipedia " (Thalasseus elegans, syn. Sterna elegans - sa seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It breeds on the Pacific coasts of the southern USA and Mexico and winters south to Peru, Ecuador, and Chile.
This species breeds in very dense colonies on coasts and islands, including Montague Island and exceptionally inland on suitable large freshwater lakes close to the coast. It nests in a ground scrape and lays one to two eggs. Unlike some of the smaller white terns, it is not very aggressive toward potential predators, relying on the sheer density of the nests (often only 20-30 cm apart) and nesting close to other more aggressive species such as Heermann's Gulls to avoid predation.
The Elegant Tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, almost invariably from the sea, like most Thalasseus terns. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favored by the Arctic Tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display"
.I was lucky enough to see this bird off of the Shore of La Jolla California

Uploaded

March 20th, 2013

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