Red-tailed Tropicbird

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Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Red-tailed Tropicbird

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Red-tailed Tropicbird

The map shades 30 countries with regular records, and 10 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Mexico, South Africa, China, Ecuador, India, Guam, Mayotte, Maldives, France, Tokelau.

About the Red-tailed Tropicbird

The red-tailed tropicbird is a seabird native to tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird (Phaethontidae), it was described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it has almost all-white plumage with a black mask and a red bill. The sexes have similar plumage. As referenced in the common name, adults have red tail streamers that are about twice their body length. Four subspecies are recognised, but there is evidence of clinal variation in body size—with smaller birds in the north and larger in the south—and hence no grounds for subspecies.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Red-billed TropicbirdPhaethon aethereusThe red-billed tropicbird measures 90 to 105 cm (35 to 41 in) on average, which includes the 46 to 56 cm (18 to 22 in)-long tail streamers. White-tailed TropicbirdPhaethon lepturusThe adult white-tailed tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71–80 cm (28–31 in) long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length.

Side by side: Red-tailed Tropicbird vs White-tailed Tropicbird · Red-billed Tropicbird vs Red-tailed Tropicbird