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The White-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon lepturus, is a tropicbird, smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans. It occurs in the tropical Atlantic, western Pacific and Indian Oceans. It also breeds on some Caribbean islands, and a few pairs have started nesting recently on Little Tobago, joining the Red-billed Tropicbird colony.

The White-tailed Tropicbird breeds on tropical islands laying a single egg directly onto the ground or a cliff ledge. It disperses widely across the oceans when not breeding, and sometimes wanders far. It feeds on fish and squid, caught by surface plunging, but this species is a poor swimmer. The call is a high screamed kee-kee-krrrt-krrt-krrt.

The adult White-tailed Tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71-80 cm long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length. The wingspan is 89-96 cm, and there is a black band on the inner wing There is black through the eye and the bill is orange-yellow to orange red. The bill colour, pure white back and black wing bar distinguish this species from Red-billed.

Sexes are similar, although males average longer tailed, but juveniles lack the tail streamers, have a green-yellow bill, and a finely barred back.

There are five subspecies
*P. l. lepturus – Indian Ocean.
*P. l. fulvus – Christmas Island. This form has a golden wash to the white plumage.
*P. l. dorotheae – tropical Pacific.
*P. l. catesbyi – Bermuda and Caribbean.
*P. l. ascensionis – Ascension Island

References

* Harrison. Seabirds. ISBN 0-7470-8028-8
* ffrench, Richard (2003). Birds of Trinidad and Tobago. ISBN 0-7136-6759-1

External links

* White-tailed Tropicbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection