White-tailed Tropicbird – in Cumbria/ Great Britain

Here are very interesting news, mainly for twitchers in Great Britain: White-tailed Tropicbird – in Cumbria?! | British Birds. But maybe, birdwatchers from the continent are also interested in that remarkable dead bird. Found on the tideline at Mawbray Bank in Cumbria on 6th January, by Peter Scott of Workington, this White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus)is a potential first for Britain. The last observation has been from September 15th 2012 from Horta, Faial on the Azores. Ok, this is not too far away from Great Britain.

The White-Tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) is a pelagic bird, but it may frequent the coast for food. This species breeds on small oceanic islands, on cliffs and sometimes on the ground near the roots of a tree. White-tailed Tropicbird occurs in tropical Atlantic, Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. It breeds on Caribbean islands and northwards in Bermuda. Radiotracking transmitters were fitted to White-tailed Tropicbirds nesting at Culebra, Puerto Rico. A recent study by C. J. Pennycuick et.al. about the foraging Flights of the White-Tailed Tropicbird with radiotracking found out, that at least 2 birds were followed out to 176 km NNW from the nesting colony on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. Thus flying vast distances seem to be normal for White-Tailed Tropicbirds.

To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic.  A Trip to a tourist spots like the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean to capture images of rare birds of western palearctic also produced nice shots of the White-Tailed Tropicbird on Bird Island – as you can see above. But also on Mahé or Praslin this bird was quite a common sighting over the islands. Here are some nice shots of breeding birds of the Seychelles.

The nice image you find here is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Pictures Shop” very soon. Just give me a message, if I could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.

Other successful shootings you can see under the gallery of the Picture Shop

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