Phaethon aethereus

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Habitat and Ecology

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	AVES	PELECANIFORMES	PHAETHONTIDAE

Scientific Name:

Phaethon aethereus

Species Authority:

Linnaeus, 1758

Common Name/s:

English	–	Red-billed Tropicbird
French	–	Phaéton à bec rouge

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Least Concern ver 3.1

Year Published:

2009

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Reviewer/s:

Bird, J., Butchart, S.

Justification:
Although this species may have a restricted range, it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be small, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

History:

2008	–	Least Concern
2004	–	Least Concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	This species ranges across tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the north-west Indian Ocean and the eastern Pacific. Breeding colonies are found on the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, off the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the Carribean, on the Canary Islands, Spain, on islands in the southern Atlantic, and on the coasts of Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia⁴.
Countries:	Native: Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Bahamas; Barbados; Brazil; Cape Verde; Cayman Islands; Chile; China; Colombia; Cuba; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Egypt; El Salvador; Eritrea; French Guiana; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Haiti; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Maldives; Martinique; Mexico; Montserrat; Netherlands Antilles; Oman; Pakistan; Panama; Peru; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Qatar; Saint Helena; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin (French part); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Somalia; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; United Arab Emirates; Venezuela; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Yemen Vagrant: Angola; Bermuda; Costa Rica; French Polynesia; Gabon; Gambia; India; Israel; Jamaica; Jordan; Kuwait; Madagascar; Malaysia; Mauritania; Myanmar; Netherlands; Seychelles; South Africa; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; United Kingdom; United States; Viet Nam Present - origin uncertain: Bahrain; Belize; Benin; Cameroon; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d'Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Ghana; Guatemala; Guyana; Honduras; Iraq; Liberia; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Sao Tomé and Principe; Suriname; Togo; Western Sahara
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	This species is found in tropical and sub-tropical seas and is mostly pelagic. It feeds mostly on small fish, especially flying fish, but will also take squid. Most prey is caught by plunge-diving but flying-fish are sometimes taken in flight. Breeding is seasonal in places but can be more or less continuous in others. It is loosely colonial, nesting in rocky crevices, or on the ground on small, remote oceanic islands preferentially on cliffs where take-off is easy. No regular migration is undertaken, although individuals can undergoe extensive dispersal out to sea⁴.
Systems:	Terrestrial; Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

This species is found in tropical and sub-tropical seas and is mostly pelagic. It feeds mostly on small fish, especially flying fish, but will also take squid. Most prey is caught by plunge-diving but flying-fish are sometimes taken in flight. Breeding is seasonal in places but can be more or less continuous in others. It is loosely colonial, nesting in rocky crevices, or on the ground on small, remote oceanic islands preferentially on cliffs where take-off is easy. No regular migration is undertaken, although individuals can undergoe extensive dispersal out to sea⁴.

Systems:

Terrestrial; Marine

Citation:	BirdLife International 2009. Phaethon aethereus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 24 May 2012.
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