Rising Tide Images
Paternal Protection
A blue-billed white tern, or manu o Kū, tends to his one-week-old downy hatchling clutching to the branch of a monkeypod tree. The manu-o-Kū is an arboreal nesting pelagic seabird that doesn’t actually fabricate a nest; instead, it uses a flat or hollow or fork in the tree to keep the single egg from rolling away. The hatchling uses its strong, clawed, semipalmate feet to cling to the tree branch on which it will balance until fledging. Parents alternate brooding duties until a week or two after hatching when the chick can thermoregulate and be left unattended for up to several hours. Adults fish up to 120 miles offshore and return with fresh provisions rather than consuming then regurgitating a meal for their chick. This avian behavior was known to Polynesian voyagers and other seafarers. A landmass that may be out of view over the horizon could be located by observing and following these birds conveying their catch back to their nestling.
Paternal Protection
A blue-billed white tern, or manu o Kū, tends to his one-week-old downy hatchling clutching to the branch of a monkeypod tree. The manu-o-Kū is an arboreal nesting pelagic seabird that doesn’t actually fabricate a nest; instead, it uses a flat or hollow or fork in the tree to keep the single egg from rolling away. The hatchling uses its strong, clawed, semipalmate feet to cling to the tree branch on which it will balance until fledging. Parents alternate brooding duties until a week or two after hatching when the chick can thermoregulate and be left unattended for up to several hours. Adults fish up to 120 miles offshore and return with fresh provisions rather than consuming then regurgitating a meal for their chick. This avian behavior was known to Polynesian voyagers and other seafarers. A landmass that may be out of view over the horizon could be located by observing and following these birds conveying their catch back to their nestling.