Species: white-tailed tropicbird

The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) is a tropicbird native to the Maldives. Baavanadhoo Island, protected by Clean Waves, is home to six breeding pairs. 

White-tails are the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and the smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. They fly above the tropical Atlantic, western Pacific and Indian Oceans, and also breed on some Caribbean islands. A few pairs have started nesting recently on Little Tobago, joining the red-billed tropicbird colony. In addition to the tropical Atlantic, white-tailed tropicbirds nest as far north as Bermuda, where it they are locally called a "longtail".

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Photography by

Josh Parks / Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab (ML209710111) — Richard Brewer / Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab (ML23847981) — Jason Leifester / Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab (ML23847981)