Nombre en español: Rabijunco Piquigualdo

Nombre en ingles: White-tailed Tropicbird

Nombre científco: Phaethon lepturus

Canto: Matthias Feuersenger

El rabijunco común (Phaethon lepturus) es una especie de ave fetontiforme,¹ oceánica tropical, adaptada para largas travesías. Anida en lugares aislados esparcidos en islas tropicales del mundo. En Cuba se conoce también como contramaestre.3

Descripción

Mide cerca de 41 cm, sin contar las plumas extremas de la cola, con ellas llega hasta 81 cm. Envergadura de alas hasta 94 cm.³ Macho y hembra son similares. Tienen el cuerpo aerodinámico, se parecen a las gaviotas pero con un par de plumas largas blancas en la cola. El color dominante es blanco. Tiene una franja negra a la altura del ojo y dorsalmente en el ala extendida se le ve la punta negra y hacia la porción basal una franja diagonal gruesa negra. El pico es anaranjado. El inmaduro tiene en el dorso un barrado negro denso y el pico amarillo, careciendo de las plumas largas en la cola. Pueden verse solos o en parejas haciendo vuelos acrobáticos de exhibición sobre el área de nidificación. Promedian unos 16 años de vida. Se aparean a partir de los cuatro años de edad. Se alimentan zambulléndose desde alto y buceando en el mar para pescar peces, calamares y crustáceos.

Nido

Anidan en primavera y principios de verano, en acantilados y cuevas cercanos al mar. La puesta es de un solo huevo de color algo rosado con gruesas manchas pardas. Incuban ambos sexos durante 40 a 42 días.

Subespecies

Se conocen seis subespecies de Phaethon lepturus:¹

Phaethon lepturus lepturus – Islas del Océano Índico
Phaethon lepturus fulvus – Islas Christmas (Océano Índico)
Phaethon lepturus europae – Isla Europa (s Canal de Mozambique)
Phaethon lepturus catesbyi – Islas Breeds (Océano Atlántico tropical)
Phaethon lepturus dorotheae – Islas del oeste del Océano Pacífico tropical (Hawaii a Nueva Caledonia)
Phaethon lepturus ascensionis – Islas Fernando de Noronha y Ascension

White-tailed tropicbird

The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tropical Atlantic, western Pacific and Indian Oceans. It also breeds on some Caribbean islands, and a few pairs have started nesting recently on Little Tobago, joining the red-billed tropicbird colony. In addition to the tropical Atlantic, it nests as far north as Bermuda, where it is locally called a «longtail».^[

Taxonomy

There are six subspecies:

P. l. lepturus—Indian Ocean
P. l. fulvus (golden bosun)—Christmas Island. This form has a golden wash to the white plumage
P. l. dorotheae—tropical Pacific
P. l. catesbyi—Bermuda and Caribbean
P. l. ascensionis—Ascension Island
P. l. europae—Europa Island, s. Mozambique Channel

Description

The adult white-tailed tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71–80 cm long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length. The wingspan is 89–96 cm. The bird has a black band on the inner wing, a black eye-mask, and the bill is orange-yellow to orange-red.^[ The bill colour, pure white back and black wing bar distinguish this species from red-billed.

The white-tailed tropicbird breeds on tropical islands laying a single egg directly onto the ground or a cliff ledge. It disperses widely across the oceans when not breeding, and sometimes wanders far. It feeds on fish and squid, caught by surface plunging, but this species is a poor swimmer. The call is a high screamed keee-keee-krrrt-krrt-krrt. Sexes are similar, although males average longer tailed, but juveniles lack the tail streamers, have a green-yellow bill, and a finely barred back. The white-tailed tropicbird does not have a yearly breeding cycle; instead breeding frequency depends on the climate and availability of suitable breeding sites. The bird can reproduce 10 months after the last successful breeding, or 5 months after an unsuccessful one.

Behavior

White-tailed tropicbird feeds mainly on flying fish, squid and crabs. It catches its preys by diving from height of up to 20 meters, as gannets. However, flying fish is caught in flight. It usually feeds sometimes in pairs. Prey is often detected by hovering above the surface as the bird swallows it before to take off.^[

Phaethon lepturus egg, MHNT

Conservation status

Although their population trends are unknown. In Mexico it is not under some category of protection and no specific conservation programs for these tropicbird are known, the species is found in various conservation programs as the American waterfowl. It is recommended to conduct studies on the biology of this species at sea, as well as monitoring of breeding colonies, Globally it is considered a species of Least Concern.^[

Folklore

The ancient Chamorro people called the white-tailed tropicbird utak or itak, and believed that when it would scream over a house it meant that someone would soon die or that an unmarried girl was pregnant. Its call would kill anyone who didn’t believe in it. Chamorro fishermen would find schools of fish by watching them.^[