Prior to this trip to South-east Asia, I had only seen the cosmopolitan flying fish, the national fish of Barbados. But here, there were many different sorts, all tasty snacks for following birds, including this red footed booby. Note the lower tail fin of the fish is longer and can be ‘flicked’ in the water up to 70 times a second to generate the lift required to fly.
Using Steve N.G.Howell’s book, ‘The Amazing World of Flyingfish’, I have tried to identify these fish, although Steve does seem to acknowledge that this task is not always straightforward. So far as I can tell, here there is a clearwing of some kind, a leopardwing, a freckled pinkwing and a yellow bandwing.
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