White terns to be focus of upcoming party at zoo

Few seabirds get their own annual party, but then, white terns are not your average seabirds. Like so many of their human counterparts, white terns have become smitten with our city. The birds particularly like the variety of tall, neatly trimmed trees that help make our city so attractive.

White terns aren’t as immediately noticeable as our city’s other favorite bird, the Pacific golden plover, because terns don’t forage on the ground like kolea. White terns are fish and squid eaters and raise their young in trees. But once you know the location of a tern family, you’ll be looking up, or gazing out the window of your office or apartment, often.

Unlike mynahs and other city birds, tern families are clearly visible in trees, because besides being bright white, the parents build no nest. Rather, the female lays a single egg in the crook of a branch, taking turns with her mate to incubate it for 35 or so days.

In one Waikiki tree, from the sidewalk you can look up at a branch fork and see a tern egg surrounded by belly feathers of the parent above. Parents turn their egg often, keeping it warm throughout the five-week incubation period.

It’s an amazing balancing act that chicks have to negotiate immediately upon hatching. White tern chicks are born with wide, partially webbed feet tipped with sharp toenails that help them hang on.

Because the city has professional tree trimmers constantly working on cutting away dead and wayward branches, Honolulu’s trees have open spaces that offer the birds unobstructed flyways. In addition, the round, somewhat indented scars left by some branch cuts attract birds looking for stable places to lay an egg and raise a chick.

No arborist wants to harm Honolulu’s official bird, proclaimed so in 2007. But with more and more of these protected birds breeding in city trees, a trimmer’s job can be tricky. To help, white-tern enthusiasts created a website, whiteterns.org, with nest maps to let arborists and others interested know where the birds have eggs and chicks. Citizen scientists are needed to help with monitoring. You can volunteer on the site.

To increase public awareness of our city’s charismatic birds, workers from private and public conservation organizations are throwing them a party. This third annual white tern festival is hosted by our lovely zoo.

Join me and other bird lovers at the zoo on May 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as we celebrate Hawaii’s white terns.

Oahu is the only main Hawaiian Island hosting white terns, and so far, they’re sticking to the city, from Niu Valley to Hickam Air Force Base. Our local television station PBS Hawaii reminds us often that “Home is here.” The white terns agree.