White-tailed Tropicbird
Phaethon lepturus
LCLeast Concern
- Family
- Tropicbirds (Phaethontidae)
- Order
- Phaethontiformes
Overview
The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) or yellow-billed tropicbird is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tropical Atlantic, western Pacific and Indian Oceans. It also breeds on some Caribbean islands, and a few pairs have started nesting recently on Little Tobago, joining the red-billed tropicbird colony.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Countries
- Australia
- Bahamas
- Brazil
- Chile
- China
- Christmas Island
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Equatorial Guinea
- Fiji
- French Polynesia
- Guam
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Indonesia
- Jamaica
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Madagascar
- Maldives
- Marshall Islands
- Mayotte
- Micronesia
- Mozambique
- Nauru
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Palau
- Papua New Guinea
- Puerto Rico
- Reunion
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Seychelles
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- Tanzania
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tuvalu
- United States
- Vanuatu
- Venezuela
- Yemen
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: White-tailed tropicbird
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
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