Rising Tide Images
Tropicbird Hatchling
A one- to two-week-old hatchling enjoys alternating parental protection while the other parent fishes offshore. In another week or two, the single nestling will be left alone while both parents perform provisioning duties, plunge diving into the ocean for fish and squid then returning to regurgitate meals. Spending most of their life at sea, red-tailed tropicbirds, or koa’e ‘ula, return to land only to nest. Agile in the air and in the water, they are awkward on land with short legs behind their center of mass. Nests are simple scrapes in holes and overhangs of shoreline cliffs, carefully selected to be out of reach of terrestrial predators. The return nest site landing in the vertical volcanic escarpment is challenging and may take several attempts in a strong sea breeze.
Tropicbird Hatchling
A one- to two-week-old hatchling enjoys alternating parental protection while the other parent fishes offshore. In another week or two, the single nestling will be left alone while both parents perform provisioning duties, plunge diving into the ocean for fish and squid then returning to regurgitate meals. Spending most of their life at sea, red-tailed tropicbirds, or koa’e ‘ula, return to land only to nest. Agile in the air and in the water, they are awkward on land with short legs behind their center of mass. Nests are simple scrapes in holes and overhangs of shoreline cliffs, carefully selected to be out of reach of terrestrial predators. The return nest site landing in the vertical volcanic escarpment is challenging and may take several attempts in a strong sea breeze.