Sooty Tern

Sooty Terns are able to live for years out at sea, only returning to land to mate and nest. Sooties have been spotted hundreds of kilometers from land hovering in the air. Occasionally they have even been observed resting on the carapace of sleeping sea turtles. We observed two colonies of Sooty Terns, one with parents and young chicks (around ten days old) and another colony in the egg stage. A few days later a new colony appeared to be forming with undreds of Sooty's gathering in the sky, circling in a tower formation approximately 30-80 meters in the air.

The colonies are very dense and tend to form in open, flat areas with minimal vegetation. During our colony observations we saw chick to chick interactions, chick to parents interactions and parent to parent interactions. Chicks ran around,playing and pecking at each other. Some of these young birds chased other chicks away, but most seemed tolerant of each other. .Although not yet able to fly at this stage in their life, chicks strengthen their flight muscles by flapping their wings. Parent sooty terns are very protective our their offspring. As you can see in the video to the right, adults will fight with other parents or chicks if either come too close to their own chick. When parents return to feed their young, juvenile sooty terns crouch down and lower their bodies, while at the same time raising their heads to accept the regulated food.