Specie's Page                                               South America - Inca Tern

Inca Tern:

UK Status: None resident, but can be seen in Zoo's, Wildlife and Sea Life Centres. 

Habitat: This birds diet is mainly fish, crustaceans, fish offal from fishing boats and other types of seafood.

Breeding: This bird breeds in Northern Peru, and south of the Aconcagua River near to Valparaiso in Chile. After breeding some birds migrate north into Ecuador. Nesting and egg laying is not concentrated on a particular time of the year. Eggs have been found between April and July, and also October to December. This tern nests in a variety of places, fissures and caves in rock faces, among boulders on rock slopes, in old Petrel and Penguin burrows, and occasionally under human habitations. Two eggs are laid in each clutch, and both parents incubate the eggs.

Comment: This South American tern is a member of the gull and tern family. This terns plumage is unique and can't really be mistaken for anything else. It is occasionally recorded further north, as far as Hawaii, sometimes as a vagrant.