Everything about Frigate Bird totally explained
The
frigatebirds are a family,
Fregatidae, of
seabirds. There are five
species in the single
genus Fregata. They are also sometimes called Man of War birds or Pirate birds. Since they're related to the
pelicans, the term "frigate pelican" is also a name applied to them. They have long wings, tails and bills and the males have a red gular pouch that's inflated during the breeding season to attract a mate.
Frigatebirds are
pelagic piscivores which obtain most of their food on the wing. A small amount of their diet is obtained
by robbing other seabirds, a behaviour that has given the family its name, and by snatching seabird chicks. Frigatebirds are seasonally
monogamous, and nest
colonially. A rough nest is constructed in low trees or on the ground on remote islands. A single
egg is laid each breeding season. The duration of parental care in frigatebirds is the longest of any bird.
Biology
Morphology
Frigatebirds are large, with iridescent black feathers (the females have a white underbelly), with long wings (male wingspan can reach 2.3 metres) and deeply-forked tails. The males have inflatable red-coloured throat pouches called "gula pouches", which they inflate to attract females during the mating season.
Frigatebirds are found over tropical oceans and ride warm updrafts. Therefore, they can often be spotted riding weather fronts and can signal changing weather patterns.
These birds don't swim and can't walk well, and can't take off from a flat surface. Having the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird, they're essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week, landing only to roost or breed on trees or cliffs.
As members of
Pelecaniformes, frigatebirds have the key characteristics of all four toes being connected by the web, a gular sac (also called
gular skin), and a
furcula that's fused to the breastbone. Although there's definitely a web on the frigatebird foot, the webbing is reduced and part of each toe is free. Frigatebirds produce very little oil and therefore don't land in the ocean. The gular sac is used as part of a courtship display and is, perhaps, the most striking frigatebird feature.
Breeding behaviour
They lay one or two white eggs. Both parents take turns feeding for the first three months but then only the mother feeds the young for another eight months. It takes so long to rear a chick that frigatebirds can't breed every year. It is typical to see juveniles as big as their parents waiting to be fed. When they sit waiting for endless hours in the hot sun, they assume an energy-efficient posture in which their head hangs down, and they sit so still that they seem dead. But when the parent returns, that'll wake up, bob their head, and scream until the parent opens its mouth. The hungry juvenile plunges its head down the parent's throat and feeds at last.
Distribution and identifying characteristics differ among frigatebird species, and thus are addressed in species-specific articles.
Feeding
Frigatebirds' feeding habits are
pelagic. Lacking the ability to take off from water, they snatch prey from the ocean surface or beach using their long, hooked bills. They catch fish, baby turtles and similar items in this way. Frigatebirds will rob other
seabirds such as
boobies,
tropicbirds, and
shearwaters of their catch, using their speed and manoeuvrability to outrun and harass their victims until they regurgitate their stomach contents. Although frigatebirds are renowned for their
kleptoparasitic feeding behaviour, kleptoparasitism isn't thought to play a significant part of the diet of any species, and is instead a supplement to food obtained by hunting. A study of
Great Frigatebirds stealing from
Masked Boobies estimated that the frigatebirds could at most obtain 40% of the food they needed, and on average obtained only 5%.
Species
Genus Fregata
Further Information
Get more info on 'Frigate Bird'.
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