They are tiny, all white with a black eye ring, giving them the appearance of large black eye. They have a long pointy dark bluish bill and a long tail, compared to their body size, with a shallow fork.

They fly gracefully, with deep slow wingbeats and often hover for considerable periods. They are sea birds and spend their lives foraging over the ocean, close to coral islands with some vegetation, where they breed. They can be see alone or in small flocks.

White Terns feed on small fish, squid and will catch flying fish. They do this by hovering for a period and then skimming across the ocean, dipping their bill just below the surface to catch their meal.

The amazing thing about these birds is that they don't build a nest. Instead they lay and incubate their egg on a damaged, roughened area of a horizontal branch or in a small fork of the branch. They have only one egg and sit on it for up to 41 days until the chick hatches.

Then incredibly, the chick also sits on the branch, often alone, and the parents appear every couple of hours to feed it. Many nesting attemps fail as the egg or chick can fall off particularly when it is windy.

A few years ago, I spent some time on Norfolk Island and was absolutely fascinated by the tiny chicks sitting on the branches and spent many hours observing this incredible behaviour.

You can imagine my surprise then, when, last week, I found a White Terns on the grass verge near Ken Tubman Drive, exhausted and unable to fly.

There had been recent wild weather, with storms and strong winds and in the aftermath, many seabirds have been found far inland. The bird was transferred to Taronga Zoo and if it does well should be released back into the wild.