Images by Lou Newman
North Lido Beach, Sarasota, FL, May 24, 2009
I witnessed something today that I have never seen before. A Least Tern chick had wandered too far away from its nest (scrape) and the parents, who were looking after another chick and egg, ignored it. The Least Tern chick repeatedly went to a Snowy Plover that was brooding two newly hatched chicks and incubating a third egg. It would rush out begging to be fed by approaching Least Tern adults and when rebuffed or attacked (pecked on the head) return to the Snowy Plover scrape. The Least Tern chick would snuggle up to the Snowy or crawl under the Snowy and the Snowy would stand up and let the Least Tern chick join the other Snowy chicks. The Snowy adults even drove off non-parent Least Tern adults that attacked this chick. 
Have you ever seen a bird accept a different species into the nest? The Least Tern chick remained with the Snowy family until we scooped it up following one of the attacks by an adult Least Tern and placed in its original nest. One of the Least Tern parents then arrived with a fish and ed it to the returned chick without fanfare. The chick then settled back in
to its original scrape along with its sibling. Amazing!.
