Phaethon lepturus
Silhouette: Marie-Aimée ALLARD · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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. In addition to the tropical Atlantic, it nests as far north as Bermuda, where it is locally called a "longtail".
French zoologist François Marie Daudin described the white-tailed tropicbird in 1802. "White-tailed tropicbird" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). Its closest relative is the red-tailed tropicbird (P. rubricauda), the split between their ancestors taking place about four million years ago.
Six subspecies are recognised by the IOC: This form has a golden wash to the white plumage. P... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
No species of the same family or order lives in Santo Domingo, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Tropicbird sighting in Santo Domingo on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 92nd most-seen of the 110 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Tropicbird in Santo Domingo on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-tailed Tropicbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Santo Domingo, in our data
Santo Domingo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate White-tailed Tropicbird sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-tailed Tropicbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Santo Domingo (22 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
