Least Tern Courtship Antics

About three weeks ago, four Least Terns arrived at a lake in our local south Florida wetlands. There was only one female and this caused competition between the three males. The female had already started to bond with one of the males and over the next week he successfully drove the others away. In courtship gestures, they tried to feed the female small fish but she consistently rejected the offerings of the non-bonded males, as documented in an earlier post. On the morning of April 28th one of the male interlopers reappeared and it gave me an opportunity to observe and record this behavior. My photos and video were of rather poor quality because most of the action took place just after sunrise.

Over about 90 minutes I observed the three terns on the lake this morning. The female would only accept the offering of a minnow from the male with whom she has bonded over the past two weeks. I shot photo sequences to document the acceptance from the intended mate and refusal of minnows offered by the intruder. I also have videos of three similar subsequent courtship feeding encounters with the same results.

The first sequence begins as the female awaits the arrival of her bonded mate.



He arrives with a small minnow.



She eagerly accepts the offering.







The male departs before she even finishes swallowing the fish.





Now the intruding male is approaching the same female with a fish. This was his third try this morning.





He similarly offers it as a courtship gesture.



The female tern appears uninterested in his prize.





He tries valiantly to attract her interest in the gift.



He dangles the minnow in front of the reluctant female, to no avail.









The male ends up eating the fish before departing.



The following video documents three other encounters, two by the insurgent male, with similar results. It is best viewed full-screen. If there is a blank space below, click here.