Red-tailed Tropicbird
Phaethon rubricauda
Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Tropicbirds
Call and song
Recording 1
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Red-tailed Tropicbird
A medium-sized, mostly white seabird with a red beak. The long red tail streamers can be difficult to see at a distance. Rarely seen inland. At sea usually flies high above the water. Pairs and groups perform backward-wheeling courtship displays while giving loud squawks. Larger and heavier-bodied than White-tailed Tropicbird.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 57 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- American Samoa
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Australia
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Chile
- China
- Christmas Island
- Clipperton Island
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Coral Sea Islands
- Ecuador
- Fiji
- French Polynesia
- French Southern and Antarctic Lands
- Guam
- High Seas
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Madagascar
- Maldives
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritius
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Mozambique
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Palau
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Pitcairn Islands
- Réunion
- Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
- Samoa
- Seychelles
- Solomon Islands
- South Africa
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- United States
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- Vanuatu
- Wallis and Futuna
