Birds have all sorts
of names. Some are descriptive,
like the Blue and Gold Macaw.
Sometimes these names are much more interesting. For example we have the Diabolical Nightjar, the Invisible
Rail, and the Siamese Fireback.
A female frigatebird displaying it's "magnificent" wingspan (photo: the wikipedia files)
One of my favorite bird
names is the Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens).
First of all, it just sounds really awesome. For something to be officially called “magnificent,” it
truly must be…and they are! Second,
they have a wingspan of 7-8 feet, but
only weigh about four pounds! That
is almost the size of a Bald Eagle's wingspan, with only half of the weight.
Charles Darwin himself called these birds, “the condors of the ocean.” That is due to their large size and the
fact that they spend almost their entire life soaring effortlessly over
water. They can be found in the
Caribbean Sea and along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Central and South
America.
The frigatebird is the
only seabird where the males and females have different coloration. The males' feathers are completely
black, with some green iridescence on the head and purple on the wings. They also have a large patch of skin on
the neck that they can inflate into a large red sac to impress the females
during courtship displays. The
females are more of a very dark brown than a black, lack the red sac, don't
have the iridescence, and have a white patch of feathers across the chest and
belly. However, the females are a
little larger than the males.
A male frigatebird displaying for the females (photo: the wikipedia files)
You might be wondering
why these birds spend almost their whole lifetime flying over water. First, their feathers don’t shed water
well, unlike many other seabirds. Because of this they can only spend a few
minutes at a time in the water before they get too heavy to fly. And secondly, they have very small feet
and short legs for their size.
This makes walking or running on the ground difficult and awkward. Because they can't spend a lot of time
on the surface of the water, the Magnificent Frigatebird eats mostly flying
fish, which they capture with their beaks just above
the surface of the water.
These birds build their
nests mainly in mangrove trees or on coral atolls, where the females will lay
one egg every other year. They
also nest in colonies with many frigatebirds living and nesting in close
proximity.
The IUCN (International
Union for Conservation of Nature) considers these wonderful creatures Least
Concern, meaning they are abundant in their habitat. It is however on the 2014 State of Birds Watch List, meaning
that their numbers are declining, and without future conservation efforts,
Magnificent Frigatebirds could eventually go extinct. The first step to protecting these birds is education. Just by learning about them you are
starting to help them.
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