White-tailed Tropicbird Fåkpe / Utag; Fagpi-apåka'
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White-tailed Tropicbird Fåkpe / Utag; Fagpi-apåka'
Phaethon lepturus
Native Seabird
The White-tailed Tropicbird, known locally as "utak" or "fåkpe", is one of the most beautiful seabirds in the world. These white birds with black markings have sharply pointed wings and two long streaming feathers in their tails. These feathers are longer than the birds' bodies.
Tropicbirds hover over the water to catch flying fish. They dive with their wings half closed to catch other small fish and squid. They have bills with notches in them, almost like teeth, that help them hold their slippery prey. Fishermen follow these seabirds to help locate schools of måhimåhi and tuna. These birds may fly for hundreds of miles searching for food. Sometimes they'll circle a ship at sea, screaming noisily, then fly away. When they are not nesting, they sometimes spend months at sea.
Although graceful while flying, these birds with their short legs can hardly walk on land and have to crawl on their bellies to move around. Their webbed feet not only help them paddle on the water, but are also used to dig shallow nests in cliffside cracks.
During courtship, both the male and female glide and circle each other high in the air. One bird will sometimes hover over its mate, gently touching the lower bird's back with its long tail feathers. Females lay one egg. Both parents catch fish and regurgitate the food for the baby to eat. Until about 1985, a small colony of these birds nested at Two Lovers' Point on Guam. Biologists believe that predation by the brown tree snake is responsible for eliminating this colony and greatly reducing the number of tropicbirds around the island.
Guam Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 9/27/2005
