Tropicbirds | Phaethontiformes

Families in this order

• Tropicbirds | Phaethontidae1 speciesSeabirds of the warm oceans, built to stay far from land: a compact body, long narrow wings on which they cross open water high up with quick shallow beats, and two central tail feathers trailing behind like ribbons, longer than the whole bird in an adult. The plumage is glossy white with black markings on the primaries and a black eye-stripe; the heavy bill is red or yellow and finely serrated along the edges, which holds a slippery catch. They plunge from ten or twenty metres straight down into the water, wings swept back, and take flying fish and squid there. The legs are set far back and are so small that walking is impossible: at the colony they shuffle forward on the breast into a rock crevice or a hollow under a bush, where a single egg is laid on the bare ground. Outside the breeding season they wander the sea alone.