Thursday, August 30, 2012

MA - RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD - 08/26




 Red-billed Tropicbird - north of Oceanographers Canyon, MA. August 26th, 2012. We were still reeling from the Barolo Shearwater (seen just 30 minutes earlier) when this tropicbird approached the boat from stern. It put on a spectacular show cruising around the boat for an extended period before disappearing just as suddenly as it had appeared. Initially taken to be a young White-tailed, Tom Johnson pointed out that the images revealed black primary coverts, a diagnostic feature of Red-billed. It was the first tropicbird of any kind to be found on a BBC Extreme Pelagic. Digi-bin images taken using Leica 8x42 bins and a Canon Powershot A590.

 




1 comment:

Larry said...

Yet another great bird! Now all we need is a storm to bring these birds inland a bit!