Overview

Red-tailed Tropicbird: This medium-sized tropic bird has silky white plumage and a small but conspicuous black eye stripe. It has a coral red bill and black legs and feet. The tail has long, red central streamers. It mainly feeds on flying fish. Swift, purposeful flight, alternates fluttering wing beats with glides. Hovers while hunting and in courtship. Sexes are similar.

Red-tailed Tropicbird: This species nests on the Hawaiian Islands and disperses widely in tropical and subtropical areas of the Indian and Pacific oceans; it occurs accidentally off southern California and along the California coast. It is more pelagic than other tropicbirds, and is usually seen far out at sea.

Voice Text

"squawk", "chirp"

• Chicks are fed in shifts by the parents an average of every 17 hours.
• The Red-tailed Tropicbird is the rarest of the tropicbirds, yet is still a widespread bird that is not considered threatened.
• Their courtship displays are complex and consist of flying backwards, vertically, and in circles.
• They feed offshore alone rather than in flocks.

• Red-footed Booby
• Masked Booby
• White-tailed Tropicbird
• Red-billed Tropicbird
• Northern Gannet
• White Tern

Tropicbirds (Phaethontidae)

ORDER

The order PELECANIFORMES (pronounced pel-leh-KAN-ih-FOR-meez) is composed of six families including the comical, large-billed pelicans, the pterodactyl-like frigatebirds, the gannets and boobies, and the graceful tropicbirds.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The tropicbird family, Phaethontidae (pronounced fee-TON-tih-dee), is a small family of just three species in one genus that occur in tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

SOUTH PACIFIC-PALAU

Three species of tropicbird in one genus occur in the South Pacific. Two species, the Red-tailed Tropicbird, and White-tailed Tropicbird, occur in Palau.

NORTH AMERICA

All three species of tropicbird, the Red-tailed, White-tailed and Red-billed, have occurred in North American waters.

KNOWN FOR

Tropicbirds are known for their ability to suddenly appear and hover overhead during pelagic birding trips despite several people watching for them at all times. They are also known for being very graceful in flight and having elongated central tail feathers.

PHYSICAL

Tropicbirds are fairly large with long, pointed wings, short necks, and wedge-shaped tails with elongated, central tail feathers. They have medium-length, strong, sharp bills somewhat like that of a tern (an unrelated group of birds). Also like terns, they have short legs with webbed feet for paddling in the water.

COLORATION

Tropicbirds have predominately white plumage with black markings in the wings, on the face, and in the case of the Red-billed Tropicbird, also on the tail and back. Black markings on the back are also found on young of other species. Bills of tropicbirds are colored a deep red in Red-billed and Red-tailed Tropicbirds (which also has a red central tail feathers) and bright yellow in the White-tailed Tropicbird.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

Tropicbirds nest on rocky islets and cliffs but mostly frequent warm seas far from land. Away from breeding grounds in Hawaii and Bermuda, tropicbirds are seldom seen. While the White-tailed Tropicbird is rarely but regularly encountered in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, the other two species are only casually seen in North American waters.

MIGRATION

Tropicbirds are non-migratory but disperse widely after breeding.

HABITS

Away from their nesting colonies, tropicbirds are solitary birds that dive for fish and squid on the open ocean. They often take advantage of small fish driven to the surface by tuna and other predators; each tropicbird species being adapted to foraging with different types of predatory fish.

CONSERVATION

Although the Red-billed and Red-tailed Tropicbirds have fairly small populations, neither these species nor the White-tailed are threatened. With so many seabird species threatened by pollution, long-line fishing and disturbance at their breeding grounds, this is a positive and welcome anomaly.

INTERESTING FACTS

Before breeding, tropicbirds perform beautiful, aerial courtship displays that can involve wagging their tails back and forth as they fly backwards and in circles. On their breeding grounds in Bermuda, the White-tailed Tropicbird is a welcome sight. Considered a sign of spring, “nest igloos” are put up to help with the nesting of the “longtail,” Bermuda’s national bird.

Author

Artist

Chris Vest