M’lady, do you like m’moustache?
*Tips fedora* Oh m’lady bird… Every part of you is so beautiful! Muah muah muah smooch smooch!!
The other day, I saw photos of the Inca Tern for the first time. I was so wow-ed by their mustachioed appearance, I simply had to do a post on them!
So fashionable! Inca Terns and their impressive moustaches
Inca Terns are uniquely plumaged bird that can be found on the coasts of Peru and Chile, in South America.
South America you say? So it’s not m’lady but rather, m’Senorita!
These birds’ range is restricted to the Peru Current, also known as the Humboldt Current. This may not be interesting to non-nature enthusiasts, so I’ll make it quick: the Peru Current is basically an ocean current that is quite cold, and super full of life! This is highly uncharacteristic of the warm, tropical waters of South America.
The Peru Current accounts for roughly 18-20% of the total worldwide marine fish catch! We humans are really dependent on the Peru Current - loads of sardines and anchovies are fished up from this region - and so are other marine mammals and seabirds. I thought this was a fun fact that would be nice to include in today’s article!
Inca Terns love sardines and anchovies. Their diet consists almost entirely on fish! In fact, they love these little fishies so much the Inca Tern is known to dive down and steal the food right out of other animals’ mouths! Sneaky little thieves.
In a nutshell, Inca Terns are what we call kleptoparasitic.
Kleptoparasitism is when an animal steals food from another animal. “Klepto,” meaning to “steal”, and “parasite,” meaning a very one-sided relationship where one organism benefits at the expense of the other. Inca Terns are known to brazenly steal their food by diving down and snatching it right out of the mouths of sea lions and dolphins.
The Inca Tern can be identified by its dark grey body, white moustache on both sides of its head, and red-orange beak and feet.
One look at the Inca tern, and you will see that its most distinctive feature is a handlebar mustache, which is shaped from a tuft of white feathers growing out from each side of the bill.
Just below the mustache on each side of the face is a narrow wattle that is made of bare, bright yellow skin. A wattle is a sort of fleshy bit of the bird’s face, and these wattles usually hang from the head or neck area.
Why do Inca terns have moustaches?
Like many other cool birds and their snazzy accessories (from bright blue webbed feet to striking red inflatable throat sacs), Inca Terns have grown to be sexually attracted to these flambouyant moustaches. Because females routinely choose to mate with males with cool moustaches, the Inca Tern moustache gene is passed down from generation to generation.
In the world of humans, you can think of it as blue eyes.
Research shows that all people with blue eyes share a single, common ancestor that was born with a genetic mutation thousands of years ago. That one mutation is the cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.
Even though there was just one ancestor with blue eyes, today, 8-10% of the world (some 700 million) of people worldwide have blue eyes!
Like the Inca Terns that sexually select birds based on their moustaches, we humans also sexually select our mates by the way they look. Somehow, blue eyes are considered attractive to humans, and that’s why the genes for this eye colour hav spread throughout our species.
Unlike blue eye, that don’t seem to be linked to anything else (like health, strength or wisdom), an Inca Tern’s moustache is a sign of its physical health. The longer the moustache, the healthier the bird.
It’s pretty cool how animals have evolved to be so unique. Keep reading my posts to learn more about the magical world of birds!