Frigate Birds

Frigate birds are probably the most interesting birds we have seen. They have scissor tails, much like a swallow, but they are very large birds. They fly incessantly, looking for food mostly, and they stay aloft for hours. One study in the Indian Ocean tracked a frigatebird aloft for two months. In the Galapagos, two kinds of frigate birds live here - the great and the magnificent. The Great Frigate Bird is the most common on the islands where we were, and they have several interesting characteristics. First they cannot get their wings wet, and so they fish by swooping down and snatching fish that have been forced to the surface by other fish. They also are known as pirate birds, as they may steal food from other birds and they occasionally eat other birds' chicks. On one of our trips, a frigatebird was found sitting in the ocean. Alejandra, our guide, seemed distressed, because frigatebirds normally cannot get their wings wet. A large bird came swooping by, and the one in the water flapped its wings and very awkwardly managed to fly to the cliff. Alejandra thought it was probably a juvenile bird, and it was lucky to have the strength to get out of the water onto the cliff. Disaster averted. The most interesting thing about the frigatebirds, however, is the way the males attract their mates. The males have a red pouch on their throat, and when they want to attract a mate, they inflate the red pouch. It takes enormous energy for the males to inflate their pouches, and if they do not attract a mate and "abort the mission," the pouch slowly deflates and the bird must wait another year to try to attract a female. The males reach mating age about 10 or 11 years of age, an thev females about 9 to 10 years. When a female decides to mate with a male, she swoops down next to him, he puts his wing over her, and they engage in what the natives call "honeymooning." Then they lay their eggs, and after the eggs are laid (which are about 6% of the female's body weight), they take about 4 weeks to hatch, and then the parents spend up to 4 - 6 months taking care of their babies. Seeing all of the red pouches in the trees was quite the experience. We are lucky to have seen so many of them!