Who said that the dad is not careful with the baby?Look at it!

Author:Species calendar Time:2022.06.19

Ordinary Sterna Hirundo, English name Common Tern, whether it is Chinese or English names, it is very "flat and unpretentious."

As a typical wetland bird, ordinary ternow gulls are not common in cities and are not known for most people. When you see it in the wild, most people also call it "seagulls" casually. Some people observe that they are more detailed, and they will find "Alas, how can this" seagull "tail like a bifurcation like a swallow's tail?" This characteristic is also the reason why ternows are known as swallows.

Ordinary ternal gulls for food ｜ Badjoby/ Wikimedia Commons

Although the name is very ordinary, the ordinary ternow gull is a model husband and a super -dad in nature.

Model husband

Ordinary royal gulls are a monogamous bird. When the male bird is pursuing female birds, the fish captured will be dedicated to female birds. This situation is common in gulls. If the female is intentionally interested in the males, she will accept the gift of the male bird.

When the female bird's egg delivery period and when the female bird hatchs eggs, the male birds will provide food to the female from time to time, and the male birds will also share some incubation work. After the chicks break the shell, the female bird will spend more time looking at the young chicks. At this time, the task of providing food is mainly borne by the male bird.

Ask for the ordinary ternow gulls ｜ wikipedia

The busy male birds have to eat, and it is facing a problem of food distribution. In 1979, a paper published in "ORNIS Scandinavica" pointed out that the food provided by the males for female individuals is far greater than the food they eat, that is, the male bird All the fish are eaten by yourself, and the partners are big fish with a lot of meat.

Writing here, do you think that the male generals are very "warm men" -just like our human beings, the partner of the love period usually leaves good things to each other?

However, in fact, from the perspective of biology, it can explain the actions of the male generals. Sending larger fish to female birds can provide more food within a limited number of flights. This strategy can be regarded as the optimal foraging countermeasure. The best effect is achieved in the most physical saving method. The birds are not stupid at all.

Ordinary swallow gulls and chicks, photographed in Dongying, Shandong | Hu Yunbiao

Attomal daddy

In the care of future generations, male birds may be more careful than female birds. A paper published on IBIS IBIS published in Bird's Magazine in 1986 states that in the period of breeding, the male birds will provide fish of different sizes according to the growth state of the chicks -as the chicks continue to grow, the more the fish provided will become the more Come bigger. The female does not have such a "intimate" behavior. The small ones are casually given, and you eat if you like it.

The reason for this is probably because female birds consume too much energy during the spawning and incubation phase. The mother of Bird is too hard, and she hasn't worked so much like a bird's father, so carefully takes care of the future generations.

Ordinary swallow gulls during the egg, shot in Dongying, Shandong | Hu Yunbiao

Malestones are not only attentive, but also very hardworking. They are far more frequent than female birds. If the female bird dies unexpectedly in the brooding period, the male bird still has the ability to grow the chicks alone, which is really a great dad.

Ordinary Swipe ｜ Amanda Boyd /U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters

The crisis during the breeding period

However, although ordinary ternow gulls have hard and careful parents, the chicks and eggs still face a heavy crisis.

Ordinary royal gulls are ground nest birds. Some of their nests are directly located on the bare ground. They are paved with gravel or dry plants, and some are located at the root of dry plants. The number of egg eggs is usually 3, each weighing about 20 grams, which is about the same weight as the two quail eggs. The color of the eggs is mostly earthy, with irregular dark spots, which is similar to the background color of the nest, which has a hidden effect. In addition, most of the ordinary ternow gulls are cluster breeding, which helps to resist predators.

The nest and egg of ordinary ternow gulls ｜ Wikipedia

However, even so, the eggs and chicks of ordinary ternow gulls are still facing the risk of predation, and predators are common gulls such as heron and Larus Argentatus.

In addition to predators, ordinary royal gulls on the campus nest are often affected by natural disasters. When the floods caused by storms or caused by storms, the eggs of ordinary stiff gulls and chicks that do not fly are often washed away or drowned by water, resulting in "group destroyers". When I was a bird survey in Dongying in the summer, I found that after a half -hour heavy rain, the eggs such as the white royal gulls (S. Albifrons) on the ground were rushed into the water by the water flow. Some of them were rushed into the water to "soak soup", which basically announced the failure of reproduction.

Individuals with black upper beak and red at the base of the lower beak, photographed in Dongying, Shandong | Hu Yunbiao

Fortunately, from a global perspective, ordinary ternow gulls have not faced a crisis of survival. According to IUCN estimates, the number of wild population in its wild is between 1.6 million and 4.6 million, and the endangered level is no danger (LC). As long as there are suitable habitats and enough food, they can grow and grow.

Where is ordinary?

Ordinary royal gulls belong to the family gull family, with 4 subspecies, and there are 3 subspecies in my country.

The named subspecies S. Hirundo, distributed in Europe and North America, the breeding period is red, the beak tip black ｜ Wikipedia in the eastern coastal areas of my country. In the western region, the beaks seen by the gulls are mostly red. When I was investigating in the wild, I saw some ordinary birds with black and red beak and the base of the lower beak. I don't know if there is a hybrid between sub -species.

S. H. LongiPennis, distributed in eastern Asia to Australia and New Zealand, the breeding beak is black. Photo in Binzhou, Shandong | Hu Yunbiao

Ordinary stutter gulls breeds in the northern hemisphere, and it is a typical migrant bird in the low latitudes of the southern hemisphere or northern hemisphere. Compared with its relatives -S. Paradisaea, which migrate between Antarctic and Arctic, the migration range of ordinary ternow gulls is indeed a bit unpretentious.

However, the reason why it is known as "ordinary" is because its distribution range is very wide. Except for Antarctica, all continents are distributed and are found in various wetlands of coast and inland. Two more words here. Among the birds, the name "ordinary" in the name is usually the most common and most distributed in their group groups, such (Mergus Merganser), ordinary kingefenis, ordinary 鵟 [Buteo Buteo), common night eagle (Sitta Europaea), and ordinary 䴓.

Ordinary royal gulls, shot in Binzhou, Shandong | Hu Yunbiao

As people who have worked in bird research, I often imagine myself as a bird and come to imagine what their lives will look like.

Ordinary royal gulls travel between winter and breeding every year. In the lifetime cycle of ten years, the same journey is repeated year after year. However, the lives of most of us are so "two points and one line". As a kind of ordinary bird, ordinary ternow gulls are like ordinary people, born and ordinary, but still work hard on the earth, writing and writing their own legend.

Author: Hu Yunbiao

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