White-tailed Tropicbird - BirdForum Opus

Nominate subspecies
Photo © by cango
Aride, Seychelles, October 2017

Phaethon lepturus

Identification

Subspecies catesbyi
Photo © by Steve G
Little Tobago Island, Tobago

70-82 cm (27½-32¼ in) long (includes very long central tail feathers)

• White back
• Black band on inner wing upperside
• Black on outer primaries
• White primary coverts on upperside
• Black line through eye tends to turn down
• Yellow to red bill
  

Sexes are similar (males have a long tail)
Juvenile: lacks taill streamers

• Greenish-yellow bill
• Finely barred back

Similar species

Red-billed Tropicbird and Red-tailed Tropicbird. Red-billed Tropicbird has black primary coverts on upperside and black eye line tends to turn up, not down.

Distribution

Subspecies fulvus
Photo © by peterday
Christmas Island, Australia, February 2023

The tropical Atlantic, western Pacific and Indian Oceans. They also breed on some Caribbean islands.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Immature
Photo © by Andy Wraithmell
off Florida, July 2011

There are six subspecies^[1]:

• P. l. lepturus:

• Islands in Indian Ocean

• P. l. fulvus: the tropicbirds of this subspecies have a golden-yellow wash of varying degrees, giving them the local name of Golden Bosun (photo to right)

• Endemic to Christmas Island, Australia (Indian Ocean)

• P. l. europae:

• Europa Island (southern Mozambique Channel)

• P. l. catesbyi:

• Breeds islands in tropical Atlantic Ocean

• P. l. dorotheae:

• Islands in tropical western Pacific (Hawaii to New Caledonia)

• P. l. ascensionis:

• Fernando de Noronha and Ascension Islands

Habitat

Breeds on rocky island coasts, otherwise pelagic.

Behaviour

Breeding

The single egg is laid on a cliff edge or on the ground in a sheltered scrape. The breed in loose colonies.

Diet

Their diet consists of small fish (especially flying fish) and squid, caught by diving.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Oct 2017)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-tailed Tropicbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-tailed_Tropicbird

External Links

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