Whitecheeked terns

These birds look like whitecheeked terns, scientifically known as Sterna repressa. They are smaller than common terns but longer-billed and shorter-legged. Whatever wind there is, they’re facing into it as they stand here. The bills are dark with blood red at the base. The white above the bill turns black when they breed. Their call resembles that of the common tern.

The species lives mainly on tropical coasts and inshore waters, foraging mainly within 3 kilometres over coral reefs. They probably eat small fish. In South Africa whitecheeked terns are infrequent visitors, usually seen on the KwaZulu-Natal coast but they mostly live in East Africa and Asia to India.

The nest is a shallow scrape on rock, sand, gravel or coral islands, bare and exposed sandflats and sparsely vegetated open ground on sand-dunes and above the high-water mark on beaches. Breeding happens to the north of South Africa (Maclean, 1993; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; https://ebird.org).