Tern-inca — a bird with a mustache

Meet the Inca tern - one of the most interesting birds in the world. She is unusual in that she is the owner of an excellent mustache. It is called the Inca tern, because the natural range of this representative of the tern somehow inexplicably coincided with the borders of the ancient Empire of the Inca people - Tavantinsuyu, which flourished in the 11th-16th centuries.

The Inca tern (Latin Larosterna inca) is a bird from the tern family that lives on the Pacific coast of South America. It is there that she builds her nests, occupying the territory from Peru to northern Chile.

The Inca tern is a very charming bird. It has an ash-gray head and body, white edges of wings and a black tail, the beak and paws are bright: the beak is bright red, the paws are red.

This is a medium—sized bird: body length — 39-42 cm, weight - about 190 gr. The wings are quite long and wide, their span is noticeably above average, so it is not difficult to confuse the flying tern of the Incas with a large bird.

The Inca tern has an unusual voice, it vaguely resembles a cat's meow. But the most remarkable thing about them is their whiskers, consisting of tufts of white feathers, which begin at the base of the bright red beak, pass under the eyes and famously twist rings forward. The length of one mustache can reach up to 5 cm .

The Inca tern is a gregarious bird. On the sandy shore, you can often see thousands of birds that have gathered together in order to relax and communicate in their own way. From these "conversations" the noise is unimaginable.

Most often, Inca terns settle on rocks, and hunt in the cold but fish-rich Peruvian current. As a rule, these cunning birds accompany sea lions, whales and dolphins to get the fish they are afraid of.

When hunting on the water, the Inca tern, noticing the fish, freezes in the air for a moment, and then quickly rushes into the water and snatches it from the very surface of the water.

The Inca tern nests in small caves located on the Pacific coast or occupies the empty nests of other seabirds. There are usually no more than two eggs in the clutch, which incubate for about four weeks.

Now the number of these feathered barbels is rapidly decreasing, primarily due to the loss of nesting sites. In general, there are about 150 thousand Foreign terns left on the planet, so they can be attributed to an endangered species.