White-tailed Tropicbird

Phaethon lepturusOrder: PELECANIFORMES Family: Tropicbirds (Phaethontidae)

Codes: Common Name: WTTR Scientific Name: PHALEP ITIS Taxonomic No.: 174676

Breeding Location:

Open landscapes

Breeding Type:

Monogamous

Breeding Population:

Egg Color:

White to pale buff with brown and purple spots

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

40 - 42

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

No nest materials.

Migration:

Migratory

General

White-tailed Tropicbird: A large bird, white overall with a long black bar on upperwing coverts and outer primaries. It has a black loral mask which extends through and past the eye. Bill is yellow to orange. Its long white tail streamers can be up to seventeen inches long. Legs and feet are yellowish with black webbing on toes. Immatures lack tail streamers and have a fine barring on the back.

Range and Habitat

White-tailed Tropicbird: Occurs regularly off the coast of the southeastern United States and less commonly throughout the northern and eastern Gulf of Mexico and tropical eastern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It originates from breeding colonies in Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. There are three records of this bird in western North America (southern California and Arizona). Nest sites range from closed-canopy rain forest to barren ground.

Breeding and Nesting

White-tailed Tropicbird: A single white to pale buff egg with brown and purple spots is laid on the ground in ridges of cliffs, crevices, caves, or sheltered by grasses or bush. Incubation ranges from 40 to 42 days and is carried out by both sexes. Both parents care for and feed young.

Foraging and Feeding

White-tailed Tropicbird: This bird is pelagic and only comes ashore to breed. It eats small, surface-dwelling pelagic fish and squid by making deep vertical plunge dives into water from air for prey, catching it in its bill, and then swallowing it under water or on surface. It does not follow boats but may express interest in them as flying fish are frequently flushed into flight by moving boats therefore providing easy prey.

Vocalization

White-tailed Tropicbird: In flight, gives loud, shrill scream "keek, keck" often rapidly repeated. A call uttered less frequently by birds flying singly is a wheezy "eeh-oh" made with beak opened wide and pointed downward. Call is a guttural "squawk."

Similar Species

White-tailed Tropicbird: Adult Red-billed Tropicbird is larger with a slower wingbeat and lacks black patches on upperwing. Immature Red-billed has less distinct barring on the back. Adult Red-tailed Tropicbird also lacks the black patches on the upperwing.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

White-tailed Tropicbird

White-tailed Tropicbird: A large bird, white with long black bar on upperwing coverts, outer primaries. Black loral mask which extends through and past eye. Bill is yellow to orange. Tail streamers are white and can be up to seventeen inches long. Legs and feet are yellowish, black webbing on toes.

● Song: "keek-keck", "eeh-oh", "squawk"

● Foraging & Feeding: White-tailed Tropicbird: This bird is pelagic and only comes ashore to breed. It eats small, surface-dwelling pelagic fish and squid by making deep vertical plunge dives into water from air for prey, catching it in its bill, and then swallowing it under water or on surface. It does not follow boats but may express interest in them as flying fish are frequently flushed into flight by moving boats therefore providing easy prey.

● Breeding & nesting: White-tailed Tropicbird: A single white to pale buff egg with brown and purple spots is laid on the ground in ridges of cliffs, crevices, caves, or sheltered by grasses or bush. Incubation ranges from 40 to 42 days and is carried out by both sexes. Both parents care for and feed young.

● Similar species: White-tailed Tropicbird: Adult Red-billed Tropicbird is larger with a slower wingbeat and lacks black patches on upperwing. Immature Red-billed has less distinct barring on the back. Adult Red-tailed Tropicbird also lacks the black patches on the upperwing.

Flight Pattern

Buoyant graceful pigeonlike flight with fluttering wing strokes alternated with soaring glides., Hovers briefly over prey or perch before dipping down to it.

White-tailed Tropicbird Body illustration_2

● Range & Habitat: White-tailed Tropicbird: Occurs regularly off the coast of the southeastern United States and less commonly throughout the northern and eastern Gulf of Mexico and tropical eastern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It originates from breeding colonies in Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. There are three records of this bird in western North America (southern California and Arizona). Nest sites range from closed-canopy rain forest to barren ground.

^BreedingMonogamous

^Population

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight15.3 Ounces

Outer primaries

The outer primaries are the primary feathers on the wing farthest from the body. They often appear to be the longest feathers on the wing.

Primaries

The primaries are the flight feathers specialized for flight. They are attached to the "hand" equivalent part of the wing.

Pelagic

The pelagic is a type of bird whose habitat is on the open ocean rather than in a coastal region or on inland bodies of water (lakes, rivers). An example of a pelagic bird is the blacklegged kittiwake.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America