Tropicbirds | Phaethontidae

Keerkringvogels | Rabijuncos

Fish and squid are caught by plunging into the water from a height, sometimes after a brief hover above the waves; the prey is seized underwater and swallowed at the surface. Birds hunt alone or a few at a time, far from the breeding site, and the salt taken in with seawater leaves the body through glands above the eyes. Over the colony small parties fly slowly and close together, bending the tail streamers down and sideways and circling around one another. Nothing is built: the single egg lies in a crevice under a boulder, in a hollow of a cliff face or under dense cover, out of the sun and out of sight. Both parents incubate in turn and bring food back in the crop; between visits the chick is left alone for long spells, and it finally leaves the nest site unaccompanied and heads straight out to sea. At the nest and in display flight the birds give harsh rattling and whistling calls; at sea they are silent.