The final day of February found me on the rugged south-east coast of the island, on a cliff which was being relentlessly and violently pounded by angry waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the waves were so large that they reached a couple feet over the cliff which was more than 30’ in some areas. It was in these harsh conditions that one of the most rarely seen, locally breeding birds of Barbados was found, the Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus).
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| Photo by Dr. John Webster |
These beautiful and graceful
birds spend most of their life at sea but return to nest in holes or crevices on
the south-east, east and northern sea cliffs of the island. Red-billed Tropicbirds are 18-20” in length
excluding the two centre tails or plumes which can be double the length of the
bird. It is a white bird with black eye
patches, black barring on the back, black wing tips and of course a red bill.
I spent an hour observing
these birds with some flying in and out of crevices
in the sea cliff. I counted about eight
birds within that time.
The Red-billed Tropicbird
is one of only two pelagic bird species with a history of nesting on the island.
If all goes to plan, in April I will be telling you about the other pelagic
bird so look out for that.
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