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Posted by Paul Bithorn on 13:43:21 07/08/06
In Reply to: Re: Tropicbird status posted by Trey
"The silence was deafening......." After almost a week to mull over the recent tropicbird sighting, I am now better prepared to impart with my own opinion. Conventional wisdom would slough off the sighting as a White-tailed Tropicbird. Had we not had Trey Mitchell s excellent photos of the bird directly overhead we would probably have written the tropicbird off as a White-tailed.
As to my personal experience with tropicbirds it is limited to White-tailed, all of which were adults. My first sighting was on May 4, 1984 on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas (2) and subsequent sightings were on April 4, 1988 near Rebecca Shoals (1); April6, 1996-Beacon Cay, Exumas, The Bahamas (3); April 7, 1996-Shroud Cay, Exumas; April 8, 1996-Bell s Cay, Exumas; April 10, 1997-Norman Cay, Exumas (14); March 31, 1997-Warderick Wells, Exumas (4); April 1, 1997-Little Bell Island, Exumas (1); April 2, 1997-Shroud Cay, Exumas (16) nesting; April 3, 1997-Exuma Sound, Exumas (1) and April 11, 2002 off the Marquesas.
Alex Harper first spotted the recent tropicbird sighting on Monday, July 3, 2006, as it flew above our wake directly towards the boat off of the stern. As my fellow birders, Alex Harper, Roberto Torres, Raul Urguelles, Trey Mitchell and Larry Wolski began crying out tropicbird my first impression with the naked eye was that the flight was wrong for White-tailed (parrot-like) and that the bird was too stout (almost barrel-chested). My personal recollection of White-tailed Tropicbirds was that their flight was more buoyant and tern-like and that their bodies were much sleeker.
The jizz (gestalt) of the bird continued to be bothersome to me as I awaited opinions from experts in tropicbird identification to chime in. The likes of Peter Pyle and Alvaro Jamarillo, no less, gave excellent reviews (see previous TAS posts) of the species based on Trey s ventral photos of the bird. Photos don t lie. The single fact that the black of p8 (third primary in) extends to the tip of the feather a diagnostic field mark for Red-billed Tropicbird - should allay the fears of any nay Sayers or Doubting Thomas s that like to opine that overzealous listers could be overreaching on the identification of this very rare, irregular visitor (July-Oct., circa 10 reports).
Life is good . but, I would rather have a root canal than be on a records committee. All this writing has made me thirsty. I think I ll go quaff a few Yuenglings at Murphy s Bar & Grill to slake my thirst.
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