Tropic Birds Of St. Helena

We saw our first Tropic Bird on passage from New Caledonia to Australia, way back in 2003. I probably haven't seen more than a dozen since then.

That was until we arrived here in St Helena, where the island's cliffs provide homes for hundreds, probably thousands of these beautiful creatures.

Each afternoon as sundown approaches we sit on deck and watch the Tropic Birds zooming around the cliff face, some times in small groups, always at high speed, dragging those impossibly long tail feathers.  What flying speedsters they are.