Want to know more details about the Red-tailed tropicbird?
The red-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) is a seabird that mainly resides in the Indian and Pacific Oceans’ tropical regions. Therefore, this species is discoverable amongst the countries of Sri Lanka, Australia, Bangladesh, British Indian Ocean Territory, Canada, Chile, China, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mayotte, Mexico, the Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Norfolk Island, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Taiwan, and China.The red-tailed tropicbird is a large windborne seabird with a slender body, a short neck, long and narrow wings, and two very-noticeable streamer lines of lengthy central tail feathers. Its beak and tail streamers are both bright red, and its feathers appear to be mostly white. Tropical birds with red tails mostly inhabit habitats, residing and roaming in open water. The tropical and subtropical seabirds are all included in their large-scale diversity.
Classification:
The binomial name of this species, “Phaethon rubricauda,” was first used in 1783 by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert in his inventory of the Planches Enluminées. The Latin words ruber, meaning “red,” and cauda, meaning “tail,” used for the species’ identification, which procured from the Ancient Greek phaethon, “sun.”Moreover, John Latham, an English ornithologist, mentioned the name “Red-Tailed tropicbird” in his General Synopsis of Birds, which was published in 1785. He stated that this species is widely spread in Mauritius and the South Pacific. Another thing he recorded regarding a black-billed tropicbird was that it was taken from Palmerston Island and ended up in Banks’ collection.
Nevertheless, Latham did not give them binomial names. A German naturalist, Johann Friedrich Gmelin, was in charge of describing the species, and it appeared in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae in 1788 under the names of Phaeton phoenicuros and P. melanorhynchos, respectively. Later, Latham gave this black-billed specimen the name “Phaethon novae-hollandiae” and described it as the New Holland tropicbird.
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