Red-billed Tropicbird in flight

Sightings
It was nearing the end of the breeding season and this Red-billed Tropicbird in flight near Little Tobago was an excellent find. We had few sightings of this species and the bird was some considerable distance from the camera.

Species
Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus is one of only three species in the Tropicbird family Phaethontidae. There are three subspecies of which P. a. mesonauta is found in the Caribbean.

Status and Distribution
The species is of least concern but it has a small and decreasing global population of between 3,000 and 13,000 in its huge range of 136 million square kilometres. It is a local but common resident on islands off east and north east Tobago in the breeding season but rare off Trinidad. Red-billed Tropicbird has the smallest range of the three tropicbird species, yet it still ranges across the neotropics, as well as the tropical Atlantic, eastern Pacific and Indian oceans.

References
BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 44

Photograph
The bird was photographed at 1/1000th of a second at f5.6 and ISO 400 with exposure compensation. Auto focusing at the distance was difficult and required several attempts as the bird circled trying to find a place to land on the island.