Black Tern

BLACK TERNS are less maritime than other species, breeding and preferring inland waterways and fresh water marshes. They do not start family life until two years old and the white-breasted young keep far south of the normal range until the second Spring. This curious fact may hold true with other species and banding may bring to light some more facts about the life history of Sterna.

Job says they attacked him so persistently that their blows thru his hat gave him a headache. The nests are a careless collection of sedge and rushes, often afloat. When they affiliate with other species on sandy shores, the eggs are laid in a mere depression, quite like their companions'.