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Red-tailed Tropicbird
Phaethon rubricauda Boddaert, 1783
Phaethontidae — Tropicbirds
Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda, is a seabird of tropical and subtropical islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans, with breeding on islands in those regions and a non-breeding range that reaches pelagic waters and seas off south-east Africa, south-west Indonesia, southern Japan, Taiwan and eastern Australia. It was described by Boddaert in 1783 and belongs to the tropicbird family, Phaethontidae, in the order Phaethontiformes. Adults are marked by long red tail streamers, which give the bird its name. It is one of the three closely related tropicbirds.
- Order
- Phaethontiformes
- Family
- Phaethontidae — Tropicbirds
- Breeding range
- Tropical Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean: tropical and subtropical islands of South Indian and Pacific oceans
- Nonbreeding range
- pelagic; to waters off se Africa, sw, e Indonesia, s Japan, Taiwan, e Australia
