Red-billed Tropicbird

Phaethon aethereusOrder: PELECANIFORMESFamily: Tropicbirds (Phaethontidae)
Red-billed Tropicbird Portrait
  Splitbar
Range Map for Red-billed Tropicbird

Overview

Red-billed Tropicbird: Slender, white, gull-like seabird with long white tail streamers. White back, finely barred black. Black eye stripe curves upward behind eye, almost meets at nape. Black primaries, red bill. Direct, rapid flight, pigeonlike, stiff, shallow wingbeats. The largest tropicbird.

Range and Habitat

Red-billed Tropicbird: Found in warm open ocean waters, often far from shore. Breeds on remote coastal islands or occasionally coastal mainland of Pacific Mexico and Caribbean. Occasional visitor off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Florida and California. Rare to Gulf Coast, one record for Arizona.

Splitbar

Listen:

Your computer does not have flash installed, please visit Macromedia.com to get flash.

Voice Text

"krreea", "krri-krri-krri-krri-krri-krri"

Splitbar

Related Birds:

Red-throated Loon
Red-tailed Tropicbird
White-tailed Tropicbird
.

All contents © Copyright 2003-2005 Mitch Waite Group. All rights reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced without written permission from Mitch Waite Group. Privacy Policy

Percevia® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The Percevia field guides, database and search protocol patent pending.

The best bird guide and bird watching search engine to identify birds!

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

Family Tropicbird (Phaethontidae)_blue
Species Phaethon aethereus
Length18 - 40 Inches
Wingspan44 Inches

Red-billed Tropicbird

Red-billed Tropicbird: Slender, white, gull-like seabird with long white tail streamers. White back, finely barred black. Black eye stripe curves upward behind eye, almost meets at nape. Black primaries, red bill. Direct, rapid flight, pigeonlike, stiff, shallow wingbeats. The largest tropicbird.

● Song: "krreea", "krri-krri-krri-krri-krri-krri"

● Foraging & Feeding: Red-billed Tropicbird: Flies high above water with direct, fast, and shallow wingbeats. Dives into water to catch fish and squid.

● Breeding & nesting: Red-billed Tropicbird: Monogamous semi-colonial nester. Scrape nest built by both male and female in a cave or burrow, sometimes on ground, always close to shore. Female lays one blotched or spotted red brown or white buff egg. Both sexes incubate for approximately 44 days and tend young until fledging. Young may stay in nest for up to 12 weeks.

● Similar species: Red-billed Tropicbird: Red-tailed tropicbird is smaller, with more white overall, and red tail streamers. Lacks fine black barring on back. White-tailed Tropicbird is smaller with all white back, black "V"-shaped pattern extending from rump to wings, and with much less black in the primaries. Eye stripe is reduced and is downward curving behind the eye.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with strong steady shallow wing beats.
Red-billed Tropicbird Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Red-billed Tropicbird: Found in warm open ocean waters, often far from shore. Breeds on remote coastal islands or occasionally coastal mainland of Pacific Mexico and Caribbean. Occasional visitor off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Florida and California. Rare to Gulf Coast, one record for Arizona.
BreedingMonogamous, Thought to pair for life, Colonial or solitary nester
PopulationRare in North America
MigrationMigratory
Weight27.2 Ounces