Nature - Thinking Woman's Diary

One Good Tern Deserves Another

Written: 23rd Jul 2004 | Last Updated: 23rd Jul 2004

On tropical and sub-tropical oceans and islands, there lives a particularly attractive species of bird that draws admiring glances from whoever has the good fortune to see them. They are collectively known as Gygis alba of the Family Sternidae – otherwise known as the White Tern, or Fairy Tern. The breed was classified by Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman in 1786.

They are lovely birds with sleek, snow-white feathers, dark eyes circled with black, dark legs, feet and beaks, an elegant forked tail and slender, V-shaped wings that allow them to sail silently, majestically, on the constant thermals of their habitat. If you look up at them on a sunny day, their wings seem almost translucent and quite other-worldly.

I’ve enjoyed watching them over the years during regular visits to Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. Locals love telling you that “one good tern deserves another” - because the Fairy Terns that sweep over that beautiful, tiny island usually do so in pairs. They’re sublime dancers and acrobats, seemingly in love with one another as they fly tandem, simultaneously improvising precision-perfect choreography.

There is a colony of about two thousand that has made the waters around Norfolk its home. Some of the terns stay year-round, however most only take up residence during spring and summer, arriving sometime after August and staying until March. The rest of the year, they sail over the seas.

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