Between Hurricane Idalia and the start of the change of seasons, birds have been relocating or migrating a little early.
And that includes Black Terns, which recently showed up at Orlando Wetlands. It’s the first time I have seen or photographed these new-to-me birds (No. 127 in my bird catalog), so I had to do some research to find out more about them.
AllAboutBirds.org says, “An outlier in a world of white seabirds, breeding Black Terns are a handsome mix of charcoal-gray and jet black. Their delicate form and neatly pointed wings provide tremendous agility as these birds flutter and swoop to pluck fish from the water’s surface or veer to catch flying insects, much as a swallow does.”
The website noted that while these birds spend winters in flocks along tropical coastlines, they come to freshwater marshes in small colonies to nest. That could mean they are considering Orlando Wetlands as a nesting site.
And that would be a good thing for these birds. “In the last half-century, this species has lost about half its North American population,” AllAboutBirds.org noted.
The ones at Orlando Wetlands appear to be non-breeding adults, whose bodies and heads haven’t turned completely black yet. Maybe they will hang around long enough for that change to take place.
