Australian Fairy Tern
COMMON NAME: Fairy Tern
CATEGORIES: Beach Inlet Beach-nesting
LOCAL NOTES:
Fairy Terns are small terns that visit Sandy Point over summer, looking for a suitable place to breed.
They nest in a colony, above the high tide line on the spit or the entrance sand island, and will abandon nests if disturbed.
Typically seen hunting in small groups, Fairy Terns plunge into the inlet to catch small fish.
You may be alerted to their presence by loud squawking as they fly overhead.
Fairy Terns have a conservation status of threatened in Victoria, due to a rapidly declining population.
*These Local Notes are provided by
Leanne Cusack & Diane Carpenter
LEARN MORE
For more information about this bird’s identification, as well as its song or call, location, habitat, behaviour, feeding, breeding, and conservation status, visit …
GALLERY photos taken in and around Sandy Point & Shallow Inlet.
*Photographed by Leanne Cusack (unless otherwise credited)
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