A fish, served with love!

Sterne Pierregarin - Common Tern

The male was offering a fish to the female - this is part of courtship display...

During the time that we we there (about 3 hours) the male was catching fish and offering it to the female. Both birds were chatting together when the male was appproching with a fish. The transfer take about a second and the female eats it right away. She then seems to thanks the male while he fly away to get another one.

We went the day after this photo to the same bay (inside a protected forest) and the birds were no longer there. I suppose it was a short stop to get food before continuing with their migration. Lovely couple.

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From Wikipedia :

The Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution breeding in temperate and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and east and central North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in the subtropical and tropical oceans. It is sometimes known as the sea swallow.

This species breeds in colonies on coasts and islands and often inland on suitable freshwater lakes. This latter practice is assisted by the provision of floating "tern rafts" to give a safe breeding area. It lays two to four eggs. Like many white terns, it is very defensive of its nest and young and will attack humans and other large predators, but unlike the more aggressive Arctic Tern rarely hits the intruder, usually swerving off at the last moment.

Like all Sterna terns, the Common Tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, from either the sea or freshwater lakes and large rivers. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by Arctic Tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display. Common terns are known to reach an age of 23 years or more on occasion (Austin, 1953).