24.06.2025 – A flying jewel

Today we had the huge luck of seeing one of the very rare visitors of Madeira. I am not speaking about a whale or dolphin species this time. Instead it was a flying jewel, the so called Red-billed tropic bird (Phaethon aethereus). This is a tropical seabird species, which can be found in the tropical Atlantic, from the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil in the west to the Cape Verde archipelago and coast of Africa in the east. Also in the tropical eastern Pacific and the waters around the Arabian peninsula this bird can be found. It has white plumage and a long ribbonlike tail. The bill is on the other hand bright red, hence its name. Red-billed tropic birds feed on surface fish, but one of its favourite prey are flying fish (Cheilopogon melanurus). These they catch them in short dives or catching directly from the air.

Apart from this treasure we also had some dolphin species. Today our beloved Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and Bottlenose dolphins were seen on our trips around our south coast.

By Horst Schulte

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00 No sightings

13:00 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphin

13:30 Bottlenose dolphin

16:00 Bottlenose dolphin, Striped dolphin