H4_W2_001

Date: 2017

Location: Galapagos Islands

Did you know?

Magnificent Frigate birds ranges along coasts and islands in tropical and subtropical waters. The word frigate bird derives from the French mariners' name for the bird La Frégate - a frigate or fast warship. These birds forage over warm oceans far out to sea, along the coast, and in shallow lagoons. These massive seabird with wingspan of 2.17M to 2.44M (7ft to 8ft). Overall black with extremely long, deeply forked tail and angular wings. It’s interesting to note this is only visible in the breeding time and in breeding area. They soar effortlessly over the ocean rarely flapping their long, pterodactyl-like wings and using the long tail to steer. They induce in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food to snatch. After forcing the other seabird to regurgitate its meal, the magnificent frigate bird will dive and catch the prey before it hits the surface of the water - Feeds mainly on fish, squid etc

About the picture

The most magnificent part of this bird is its striking red “Gular-Sac” as seen in this image. It inflates gulag sac to attract a female. The frigate birds gular skin or gular sac or throat sac is used dramatically and during courtship display, the male forces air into the sac, causing it to inflate over a period of 20 minutes into a startling huge red balloon.

Fun Fact

They make a shallow platform nest on top of both trees and bushes on islands and cays with mangroves.