Mystery Monday revealed! The answer is: Red-billed Tropicbird
📸 by Tanja Credner
The mystery bird is a red-billed tropicbird. I love tropicbirds and few things are more exciting on a Searcher trip than Captain Art calling out “red-billed tropicbird alert” on the PA system.
Sea Harmony @ Thad Danielson
My first sighting was in 1974 when sailing across the Atlantic aboard a 33′ yawl Sea Harmony. Ever since, they’ve been near and dear to my naturalist heart. This neotropical species and member of the larger order of birds Pelecaniformes is found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and breeds on islands in the Gulf of CA. You can see them on Searcher trips often enough, but never in great numbers as they forage alone or in pairs, feeding on flying fish and squid. Their tail streamers, sometimes 2 x body length, are glorious. A mated pair will fly high above a nesting site performing ritual acrobatic maneuvers and calling in their shrill voices, which, long ago, reminded sailors of a bosun’s whistle – thus their nickname “bosun bird.” Phaethon, the name of the three species of tropicbirds, comes from mythical Greek son of Oceanid Clymene and Helios, the sun god. This species’ name, aethereus, means ethereal or aloft. Look for these birds high in the sky on your next Searcher trip! –Paul Jones
