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Tropicbirds | Phaethontiformes
Keerkringvogels | Rabijuncos
A small order with a single family and a single genus of three species. They are seabirds of tropical and subtropical oceans. They look rather like terns but belong to a separate, ancient lineage. Their closest living relatives are the Sunbittern and the Kagu, and together they sit close to the large waterbird clade. The body is compact and the plumage mostly white with black markings. The two central tail feathers are extended into narrow streamers that can be longer than the bird itself. The bill is stout, dagger-shaped and finely serrated. The short legs are set far back, with webbing between all four toes. On land the birds can barely walk and push themselves forward on their bellies. They fly with fast, strong wingbeats, often high above the sea. They forage alone on the open ocean, far from land, plunging from a height to catch flying fish and squid. Air sacs beneath the skin cushion the impact. They breed on remote islands, in rock crevices, burrows or under overhanging boulders, without any nest material. Both parents incubate the single egg. The chick spends months in the nest cavity and is fully independent as soon as it fledges. At the colonies, groups perform loud, screaming display flights that show off the tail streamers.
Families in this order
- Tropicbirds | Phaethontidae3 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.