The Red-tailed Tropicbird of the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans
frequently hovers in flight, particularly in courtship flights. At times it
flies a few feet backwards. We found that the best time to get an idea of
their numbers on the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge was during the
courtship flights about midday. It has a wing span of about 44 inches. A
beautiful white bird with a raucous voice.

Gene Kridler
Broken Down Retired Biologist
Diann MacRae wrote:

> Hi, Len and Tweeters
>
> I got out my two southern Africa guides from last year and there are 10
> kingfishers found there (none named "African"). The largest of their
> kingfishers, the giant kingfisher, is 43-46 cm and the book says it
> "sometimes hovers briefly."
>
> I would certainly think the osprey and redtail plus others would be far
> larger, but I didn't see the program so don't know the exact context.
> Sometimes things are glossed over a bit or embellished a bit for
> television. The vulture bits the week before were just a tad off in some
> areas.
>
> Cheers, Diann
>
> Diann MacRae
> Olympic Vulture Study
> 22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
> Bothell, WA 98021 USA
> tvulture at halcyon.com