Little tern feeding flock

[Ian McLean]

Kia ora
Today, I took part in the Birds New Zealand, South Kaipara shorebird census & observed some interesting feeding behaviour of little terns. My count site was at Walker Island, a shorebird roost on private farmland near the Tauhoa River. As it turned out, the roost site was completely underwater, flooded by a 3.5 metre high tide that had all of the waders roosting in the nearby paddocks.
Whilst being slightly disappointed & having my lunch, I was very surprised by a visit by a small flock of 7 little terns. It was quick to separate them from being possible NZ fairy terns, as they were all in non-breeding plumage, with receding caps & dark bills. They patrolled the open water around the roost for 4 minutes occasionally dipping to catch prey on the surface before heading out to the main channel. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures or video them.
Anyway, at Big Sand Island/Manukapua & other places in the Kaipara we most often see little terns when they are roosting & I had certainly never seen them flying & feeding in a flock. I am not sure if many others have seen this behaviour either ? Certainly the Kaipara Harbour is massive & there are many places where little terns can feed unseen, as we tend to concentrate viewing them at roost sites.
Also, of note was that their gregarious behaviour in feeding in a flock was very different to the solo foraging that you see with NZ fairy terns.
Cheers, Ian

[andrewcrossland]

It’s pretty standard behaviour for little terns in SE Asia so not surprising when there’s a group together in NZ that they’d feed together like this. Nice to see so many together in the NZ context .

[Michael Szabo]

A couple of years ago I had a close encounter with a flock of 5 Little Terns that fly past me as they were feeding together by dipping at the surface of the water while I was wading across the channel that separates Big Sand Island from the mainland in Kaipara Harbour.