Red-tailed Tropicbird

How to identify

Field marks

1. Bright red bill, black around the nostrils
2. Two long orange-red tail feathers
3. Dark brown, comma-shaped eyestripe
4. Almost entirely white feathers, often pink-tinged

Male, female and young

Sexes have similar plumage; juveniles have black barring and scaling on the head and back and a black-gray bill.

Voice

Usually silent in flight; gives sharp clucking calls in courtship flight and low growls in defense.

Similar species

White-tailed Tropicbird

Red-tailed Tropicbird has a red bill and entirely white wings, distinguishing it from adult White-tailed Tropicbird.

Silver Gull

Red-tailed Tropicbird is larger and heavier, with a wedge-shaped tail.

Where and when it's recorded

Red-tailed Tropicbird has been recorded at 91 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 22 countries and regions.

Records by month Southern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Nosy VeMadagascar565 records
2. Midway Atoll NWR – Sand IslandU.S. Outlying Islands484 records
3. Midway Atoll NWR – Eastern IslandU.S. Outlying Islands372 records

Countries and regions with the most records

U.S. Outlying IslandsNorfolk IslandMadagascarChristmas IslandPitcairn IslandsNorthern Mariana IslandsCook IslandsSeychelles

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The red-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) 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. As referenced in the common name, adults have red tail streamers that are about twice their body length.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions