The red-billed tropicbird is a seabird, one of three species in the family Phaethontidae.

Resembling a
tern, it has mostly white plumage with some black markings on the wings and back, a black mask and a
red bill. Most adults have tail streamers that are about two times their body length, and generally longer
in males than in females. Described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of Systema Naturae (1758), this
species ranges across the Indian Ocean, the tropical Atlantic, and the eastern Pacific. Nesting takes place
in loose colonies. A single egg is laid, and incubated by both sexes for about six weeks. After a chick
fledges, the parents will usually stop visiting the nest and the chick will leave. Red-billed tropicbirds of all
ages feed on fish and squid, catching them by diving from the air into the water. The birds sometimes
follow surface-feeding predators that drive prey to the surface, where they can be seized