CalCOFI.io CalCOFI.io open data ecosystem

Phaethon rubricauda

Red-Tailed Tropicbird

Speciesaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 212595ITIS 174679key itis:174679
i

2026-08-05: worms_id 212595 via WoRMS TSN crosswalk (status accepted)

calcofi:seabirds

The red-tailed tropicbird is a seabird native to tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird (Phaethontidae), it was described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783.W CalCOFI holds 52 observations of it in 1 dataset between 1987 and 2016.R

52
observations
52
records
52
sampling events
1987–2016
years
1
datasets
78 cm
max length
Photograph of Phaethon rubricauda
Photo · Duncan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · inat

Observed in 1 dataset
i

One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses (dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet pill marks a name the authority does not accept.

  • 52 obs52 events1987–2016
    name used: Pheathon rubricauda Red-Tailed Tropicbird · code RTTR synonym

Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON

Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
ERDDAPCalCOFI's own server, the Seabirds & Marine Mammals table constrained to this taxon
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/farallon_bird-mammal.html?&taxon_key=%22itis:174679%22

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.21, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it 78 cm max
Red-Tailed Tropicbird78 cm
bongo net ring71 cm

max · sealifebase

Every mark is a measured length with its own source — hover one to read it. The reference objects are _data/size_reference.csv: two of them, the 505 µm bongo mesh and the net's ring, are CalCOFI's own sampling gear.

Lineage 11 ranks · Animalia to Phaethon
Credits silhouette · photo · text · length
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · GBIF · eBird

WikidataiNaturalistGBIFeBird

The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.

Cite the release, v2026.10.21

Cite the release, v2026.10.21; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗