The Fairy Tern is Aotearoa’s smallest breeding tern being around 25 centimeters long and only 70 grams. It’s easily recognized from other terns through its black cap covering its head and neck and its bright orange beak and feet. The rest of its body has light grey feathers on top and whiter feathers underneath. Another distinction is its forked tail, however, it can be confused with swallows.
Juvenile Fairy Terns are light grey in order to blend in with the beach.
The oldest Fairy Tern has lived to 18 years but more often lives to around 15 years.
Behaviour:
These birds are incredibly noisy and will frequently make ‘tiet, tiet’ or ‘kek, kek’ noises or make ‘zipt-zipt-zipt’ noises as their alarm call. They are also marine feeders and eat mainly small fish and shellfish. In order to catch their food, they will hover above the surface about 5-15 m above the water before diving down.
Breeding:
Breeding season for the Fairy Terns starts in late September with courtship. Then with egg-laying in August to January, in nests resting hidden on the beaches. Females will lay 1-2 small eggs that are light and speckled in order to blend in with the sand. These eggs are 12-13 grams, measure 25mm X 35mm As Fairy Terns are incredibly territorial with nests are at least 1km apart. Both parents incubate the nest but females will incubate for slightly longer. Once hatched the parents fledge around 30 days from them the parents will feed them for about a month longer as they learn to feed themselves.
Distribution and Population:
Being a coastal bird the Fairy Tern lives along the coastlines and used to be found around the North Island and upper South Island. Unfortunately, nowadays these birds areas are only found around 4 breeding sites in Waipu, Mangawhai, Pakiri, and South Kaipara Hea.
The Fairy Tern is one of Aotearoa’s most endangered species and is Nationally Critical with only around 40 birds left and 12 breeding pairs.
Threats:
The Fairy Tern sadly faces a large number of threats.
Predation: Aotearoa has a large number of introduced mammals that prey on the Fairy Tern, including dogs, cats, mustelids, and hedgehogs these prey on the adults, chicks, and eggs.
Climate Change: Which rising tides and increasing severity of weather can destroy the nest and eggs as well as make it hard for the adults to feed.
Habitat Loss: With the changing climate is resulting in shifting sand dunes and beaches resulting in fewer areas for the birds to nest. This leads to more fighters over nest areas and lower chick survival rates.
Human Disturbance: These birds are extremely skittish and will be easily scared from the nest, or won't breed if disturbed. On top of this people can come through and crush nests. People sliding down the sand dunes can result in slips and lead to entire nesting areas being covered.
