Birds


Lesser Pied Kingfisher | Crimsonbreasted Barbet | Common Hoopoe
River Tern | Indian Robin | Oriental Magpie-Robin | Indian Roller
Cattle Egret | Redvented Bulbul | House Sparrow | Grey Tit
Common Myna




Photograph by T.N.A. Perumal, F.R.P.S., M.F.I.A.P.

River Tern

» SCIENTIFIC NAME: Sterna aurantia
» KANNADA NAME: Nadee Meenugutura
» HINDI NAME: Tehari, Koorri

Graceful, beautiful birds, typically found around lakes, rivers and tanks. Their diminishing presence is due to the pollution of their habitat.

Colour and description: About the size of a pigeon. Grey and white, with black nape, yellow bill, red legs and forked tail. In summer, forehead, crown and nape turn glossy black; in winter, they appear greyish white, flecked and streaked with black.

Food: Fish, crustaceans, tadpoles and water insects. Excellent hunters, they often completely submerge under water as they plunge for prey.

Nesting season: Principally March to May.

Nest: Well-protected areas where they breed in colonies.

Eggs: Three, greenish grey to buffy stone, blotched and streaked with brown and inky purple. Eggs laid on bare rocks on sandbanks in the middle of rivers and waterbodies.