I will come back to ducks in my next post but today I wanted to share a quite remarkable and very stylish seabird.
This bird is from Pacific coast of Chile, Ecuador and Peru but has been found in Hawaii and parts of Central America. Its numbers are declining to the point that its conservation status is "near threatened".
The Inca Tern is mostly dark coloured, which is unique among Terns, and as you can see from these photos as well as its silky slate grey/black plumage it has a bright red bill with vivid yellow accents. But most striking is the Daliesque moustache comprised of long white satiny feathers. They make a mewing sound a bit like a kitten so we could say these birds are the cats whiskers (sorry).
Their food is mainly small fish and crustaceans but they will also eat offal and carrion, so not too picky. They can feed in flocks of up to 5000 birds and will follow fishing boats or pods of whales/dolphins.
These pictures were taken at Martin Mere where there are several of these beautiful birds in an aviary. They are a joy to watch in flight, however since these images were shot through netting capturing a decent photo in flight wasn't really possible.
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