See here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=213791
and a direct link to some surbird pictures of the bird:
http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20111015033016.jpg
http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20111015030957.jpg
So either a very lost bird or the golden form is not endemic to Christmas Island…
Cheers,
D.
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Golden colouration in White-tailed tropicbirds is definately not confined to Christmas Island. It is more frequent there and is expressed more strongly in the most coloured individuals. See Le Corre & Jouventin (1999: Ibis 141, 233-9 ‘Geographical variation in the White-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon lepturus, with the description of a new subspecies endemic to Europa Island, southern Mozambique Channel’). They found traces of golden plumage in 5 subspecies, including P. l. catesbyi and P.l ascensionis in the Atlantic.
David James, Sydney burunglaut07@yahoo.com ==============================
________________________________ Sent: Monday, 17 October 2011 4:02 PM
See here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=213791
and a direct link to some surbird pictures of the bird:
http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20111015033016.jpg
http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20111015030957.jpg
So either a very lost bird or the golden form is not endemic to Christmas Island…
Cheers,
D. =============================== ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================