Phaethon aethereus
The Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) is a striking pelagic seabird, renowned for its slender form and exceptionally long, flexible central tail streamers, which can double its body length. Averaging 48-50 cm (19-20 in) in body length with an additional 30-56 cm (12-22 in) for the tail streamers, and a wingspan of 99-106 cm (39-42 in), it boasts brilliant white plumage. Distinctive field marks include a stout, vibrant red bill, black primary flight feathers giving the wing a dark tra...
Primarily pelagic, inhabiting tropical and subtropical oceans, returning exclusively to remote oceanic islands and coastal cliffs for breeding.
Feeds primarily on small fish, especially flying fish and squid, caught by plunge-diving from considerable heights into the ocean.
Red-billed Tropicbirds are largely diurnal, spending the majority of their lives at sea, returning to their breeding colonies on islands or coastal cliffs typically at night or early morning. They are specialized plunge-divers, soaring high above the water before executing a vertical dive, often ...
The Red-billed Tropicbird boasts a pantropical distribution, breeding on remote islands and coastal cliffs across the Atlantic, Indian, and eastern Pacific Oceans. In the Atlantic, key breeding grounds include the Caribbean (e.g., Lesser Antilles, Bahamas), Bermuda, islands off Brazil, and the Ca...
Least Concern
- The Red-billed Tropicbird's central tail streamers can grow to be longer than its entire body, making it one of the most disproportionately tailed birds in the world. - Despite their superb aerial abilities, tropicbirds are clumsy on land, often shuffling on their bellies as their legs are set ...