📸 PhotoPhoto: Dreizung · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
White-tailed Tropicbird
Phaethon lepturus (White-tailed Tropicbird · シラオネッタイチョウ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A height of 15–20 m is about the height of a 5–7 story apartment building, from which it plunges into the water to catch prey (Comparison).
- 💡 When it spots a ship, it often flies close and circles above the mast before moving on, making it an easy bird for people on boats at sea to encounter (Birds of the World, Hawaii DLNR).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The White-tailed Tropicbird is a white seabird flying over tropical oceans; it is the smallest and most common of the three tropicbird species and is spread across tropical seas worldwide.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is mostly white with a narrow black band behind the eye, black bars on the upperwings, a large yellowish bill, and tiny legs and feet. Its central tail feathers stream out like long, slender white ribbons.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Usually flying alone over the ocean far from land, it plunges into the water from a height of 15–20 m to catch prey such as flying fish and squid. It lays a single egg in a cliff crevice, cave, or tree hollow, which both parents incubate together.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2020) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22696645/163887639
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 163887639
- • wikidata.org — Q528117
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Phaethon lepturus, Seychelles.jpg
- • dlnr.hawaii.gov — koae-kea
- • birdsoftheworld.org — introduction
- • ebird.org — whttro
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Marie-Aimée ALLARD · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.