The Tropicbird is a fairly large bird with a wingspan up to 95cm. It is white with black bands on the wings, a yellow bill and long tail streamer. They are seabirds, and can dive up to 25m in search of fish. Quite often they are seen bobbing about on the sea. They have webbed feet which are quite far back. This tends to make them very clumsy on land.

They show very little fear of humans when nesting and  consequently this led to them being predated on by both man, cats and rats. The adults are killed for their feathers. The chicks didn't escape predation by man either. Until the chick develops feathers it is just a ball of very soft fluff. This made its skin ideal for use as a powder puff by the Victorians.

Due to animal predation very few tropicbirds can be found around the inhabited granitic islands of Seychelles

On Bird Island, the accidental introduction of rats which predated on both eggs and young, and the loss of their preferred habitat due to coastal erosion in the late '80's and early '90's led to a decline in their numbers.

Here on the island, the Tropicbirds preferred nesting spot is on the ground amongst  the buttress roots of the Casuarina trees.

In 1996 when rats were eradicated there were only about 6 nesting pairs. Today the population has increased to about 50 pairs.

In 2002 in collaboration with Nature Seychelles a project to monitor the population began.

Nest sites are recorded, breeding success monitored and adults and chicks both ringed. From this we hope to establish whether or not they come back to the same nesting site and if they keep the same mate. To get both members of the pair for ringing, we have to monitor the nests carefully to watch for when they change over during the egg incubation period.

At the beginning of October 2005 there are now 72 nesting sites regularly used by the White-tailed Tropicbirds on Bird Island.

Bird ringed since the project started in July 2002:

Adults: 107 Chicks: 62