Rising Tide Images
Molting Tropicbird
At about six weeks old, this red-tailed tropicbird nestling still lacks the gorgeous red bill and red tail streamers of adult plumage, but this molt into a juvenile black bar pattern is no less striking. I’ve been following this nestling, which is now old enough to be left alone while both parents perform provisioning duties consisting of plunge diving into the adjacent 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 landings in the vertical volcanic escarpment are challenging and may take several attempts depending on the sea breeze strength and direction.
Molting Tropicbird
At about six weeks old, this red-tailed tropicbird nestling still lacks the gorgeous red bill and red tail streamers of adult plumage, but this molt into a juvenile black bar pattern is no less striking. I’ve been following this nestling, which is now old enough to be left alone while both parents perform provisioning duties consisting of plunge diving into the adjacent 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 landings in the vertical volcanic escarpment are challenging and may take several attempts depending on the sea breeze strength and direction.