White-tailed Tropicbird

Phaethon lepturus Daudin, 1802

Phaethontidae — Tropicbirds

White-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon lepturus, is a tropicbird of tropical oceans, breeding widely across all tropical seas except the eastern Pacific and north-eastern Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges over open water, reaching waters off Africa, western and southern Sri Lanka, the Indonesian Archipelago, New Guinea, eastern Australia, the Gulf Stream as far north as North Carolina, and the western North Atlantic. It was described by Daudin in 1802. A key feature is its orange-yellow to orange-red bill, together with a white back and black wing bar.

Order: Phaethontiformes
Family: Phaethontidae — Tropicbirds
Breeding range: Tropical Ocean: widespread all tropical oceans (except e Pacific and ne Atlantic)
Nonbreeding range: pelagic; to waters off e Africa, w, s Sri Lanka (w, n Indian Ocean), Indonesian Arch. and New Guinea waters, ec Australia (sw South Pacific) and Gulf Stream n to North Carolina (w North Atlantic)