The family of birds has many of the Creator’s most beautiful creatures. Peacocks, cardinals, hummingbirds and many others have colorful feathers that are beautiful. But the white tern, sometimes known as a fairy tern, is not among these. It is pure white and has no color except for a dark beak and black feathers around its soft, dark eyes. It is very attractive in the air with outspread wings.
White terns live in Hawaii, Midway and other Pacific islands and do not migrate like most other terns. They are great fishers, gliding smoothly just above the waves to snatch fish without stopping. They continue their fishing while holding each catch crosswise in their beaks, and then they return to land with a dozen or more fish at a time.
These birds attract visitors to their home areas because of a most peculiar manner of laying eggs, incubating them and raising their young. They seem entirely disinterested in making nests, but deposit single eggs on rocky bluffs or balance them on bare branches, pieces of stranded driftwood or almost any convenient, available place. Surprisingly, these eggs, which appear so carelessly placed and look as though they would fall at any moment, rarely fall, and then only because of a strong wind or something meddling with them.
The parents themselves are quite careful about this, incubating the egg by settling very gently on it, covering it with soft underfeathers. Those who have watched this never fail to be surprised at the skill with which both parents take on this incubating responsibility, especially since it takes a month for the egg to hatch.
Again, as the baby bird breaks out of its shell, a watcher would think it surely would fall from its support, and the egg and chick would be smashed below. But no, this hardly ever happens. The little newborn chick has been given a sense of balance that few creatures have so early in life. It has also been provided with strong, long claws to hold securely to its shaky home right from the start.
Both parents care for the chick for about two months, feeding it mostly small fish which it swallows whole. After that time, the instincts given by the Creator and what it has learned by watching its parents enable it to live on its own.
Although it is not likely that the psalmist ever saw the white tern, no doubt he observed other birds caring for their young when he wrote, “He [the Lord God] shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust” (Psalm 91:44He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. (Psalm 91:4)). Have you put your trust in Him?
ML-08/24/2014