A whiskered tern atop an electricity post overlooking the Nanmangallam lake, in a fiery-hot pre-noon hour on March 3, 2024.  Photo: Prince Frederick 
| Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK

Among terns that change their postal address to the Indian sub-continent during winter, the whiskered tern is arguably the most at home.

It is comfortable in a variety of environments, coastal and inland. One might espy it flying indefatigably across a water-filled Perumbakkam wetland, a coastal wetland. It would fit equally into inland settings, hovering over the Nanmangalam lake, perching itself on power posts overlooking the lake. The lake is rich in tilapia (locally known as “jalebi”) and artisanal fishermen are known to wade into the lake in coracles with nets and manage sizeable catches of it. Sometimes simultaneously, in bright natural lighting conditions, the whiskered tern would hover over the lake or sit on a post, head down, to see all the way through to a shoal of tilapia.  

Besides fish and crustaceans, the whiskered tern, also known as the white-winged tern, has a taste for frogs and toads and insects too, a factor increaseing their dining table across terrians. During winter when they have settled into the landscape, the whiskered tern is a possible sight at sites where invasive plant species are clawed out of waterbodies with amphibian vehciles. In the massive churn of water and greenery, the whiskered tern spots a feeding opportunity.

Whiskered terns perched on an electricity pole at the Nanmangallam lake on March 3, 2024.  Photo: Prince Frederick 
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

Years ago, during a massive water hyacinth removal exercise on the Buckingham Canal close to the bridge on ECR Link Road in Sholinganallur, this writer was witness to a swallow-like behavior of hovering and flitting across the waterbody. Growing out of a Greek root, the the first part of its scientific name — chlidonias hybrida — suggests a similarity with swallows. The comparison might seem to work at two levels. One, when wings down and tucked into place, the whiskered tern parallels the stream-lined look of the swallow, particularly the barn swallow. But so do other small-sized terns. The second, and most likely the only justified reason for any comparison is the persistent hovering over waterbodies that both swallows and the whiskered tern are capable of.