Red-tailed tropicbird
Phaethon rubricauda
— Where the name comes from
Phaethon is Phaeton, the son of the Sun who insisted on driving his father’s chariot, could not hold it and was struck down by Zeus as he set the earth alight. The name was chosen for the high, bright flight of these birds above tropical seas. Rubricauda means “red-tailed”: two very fine central feathers, longer than the body, that trail behind the animal like a thread.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Tropicbirds
- Habitat
- Tropical seas; nests on rocky islands and atolls
- Range
- The Indian and Pacific Oceans, from East Africa to Hawaii
- Size
- 46–50 cm without the tail streamers, wingspan 104–119 cm, 600–800 g
- Diet
- Flying fish and squid taken in plunge dives
- Lifespan
- 23 years in the wild
— Characteristics
- 01
It cannot walk: its legs are so far back that it shuffles on its belly.
- 02
It nests under a bush or in a crevice, laying a single egg.
- 03
It flies for weeks in the open ocean, far from any coast.
— What sets it apart
Across Polynesia its two red feathers were a prized material: they went into ceremonial headdresses, chiefs’ staffs and the ornaments traded between islands, and to get them people would catch the bird on the nest, draw the feathers and let it go so that it would grow them again. On some islands the practice was governed by precise taboos on who might do it and when. It is the same relationship the Maya had with the quetzal, arrived at on the other side of the world and for the same reason: some feathers were worth enough to persuade people not to kill the bird that wore them.
