Red-Tailed Tropicbird, Rano Raraku, Easter Island

Red-Tailed Tropicbird, Photo © Rodrigo Tapia, Far South Expeditions

Like a silvery arrow, an adult Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda flies by the nesting ledges in the slopes of volcano Rano Raraku, Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific. Tropicbirds, an order, family and genus of only three tropical and subtropical pelagic seabirds all have very long central tail feathers.