Longtails are here

Summer has sprung in Bermuda, actually it never really went away, as we mostly avoided the long drizzly damp days that January and February bring. Mind you we are already way down on the annual rainfall, which is going to cause us big problems in a few months when our underground tanks that collect the rain water from the roofs run dry and we have to start buying it at $90 a tank-load!

A sure fire sign that the Bermudian summertime has started is the first sightings of the yellow billed, long white-tailed tropical bird known locally as a Longtail.

The Longtails are a native seabird who spend the winter months deep out in the Sargasso Sea and well out of sight from land where they plunge down massive heights to feed on unsuspecting fish and squid. Then from around April they come to land here to mate and seeing one fly and dip down low is a dazzling sight and one of the most beautiful features of the Bermudian summer.

The Longtails chase the few seagulls from the island and nest from April through to October in holes and crevices of the coastal cliffs. Mostly they are to be found in the Castle Harbour islands away from human activities and mammal predators. There are also many man-made ‘Longtail igloos’ that were invented in 1997 as an emergency measure to provide alternative nesting sites and are located on Nonsuch Island.

The Longtails take a while to find the right accomodation and this constant searching back and forth along the cliffs, combined with their aerial courtship display, which involves touching the tips of the long tail feathers together in paired flight, that makes them so conspicuous and adored on the Bermudian coastline.

If all things go to plan a single reddish-purple speckled egg is laid in April and hatches in late May. The chick takes approximately 65 days to fledge and departs to sea on its own in late July or early August.