Magnificent Frigatebird

Magnificent Frigatebird, male

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Magnificent Frigatebird, female in flight

Magnificent Frigatebird, immature, Dry Tortugas, Florida, 30 April

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A long-winged, fork-tailed bird of tropical oceans, the Magnificent Frigatebird is an agile flier that snatches food off the surface of the ocean and steals food from other birds. It breeds mostly south of the United States, but wanders northward along the coasts during nonbreeding season.

Cool Facts

• Frigatebirds are the only seabirds where the male and female look strikingly different.
• The breeding period of the Magnificent Frigatebird is exceptionally long and young fledglings are often still being fed by the female at one year of age.

• The male Magnificent Frigatebird abandons its mate and half-grown chick and leaves the breeding colony, presumably to molt and return for another breeding attempt with a different mate. The female cares for the young for over a year. This difference in parental care allows the male to breed each year while the female breeds only every other year.

• Although the Magnificent Frigatebird spends most of its life flying over the ocean, it rarely if ever lands on the water.

Description

• Size: 89-114 cm (35-45 in)
• Wingspan: 217-224 cm (85-88 in)
• Weight: 1000-1900 g (35.3-67.07 ounces)

• Large, dark water bird.
• Long, pointed wings with pronounced bend in middle.
• Long, forked tail.
• Short neck.
• Long, hooked bill.

• Tiny legs and feet.

Sex Differences

Male entirely black with red throat pouch. Female larger; black with large white patch across chest, three or four thin white lines in wingpits, and white patches on top of wings.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult female, but head entirely white, blending with white chest. Legs, feet, and bill light bluish gray.

Similar Species

• Swallow-tailed Kite has long wings and forked tail, but has white wing linings, is much smaller, and is found inland, not over the ocean.

Sound

Silent away from colony. Makes clicking, wheezy, and grating calls.

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds in Dry Tortugas, Florida. Nests on islands throughout the Caribbean, and in tropical areas of both coasts of Middle and South America.

Winter Range

Found commonly along southern Florida coasts and throughout Gulf of Mexico, southward to southern South America. Occurs regularly to California and North Carolina, and casually further northward.

Habitat

Breeding habitats include mangrove cays on coral reefs, and deciduous trees and bushes on dry islands. Feeding range while breeding includes shallow water within lagoons, coral reefs, and deep ocean out of sight of land. Ranges along coasts and offshore islands and out at sea.

Food

Fish, squid, turtles, crabs, jellyfish, offal.

Behavior

Foraging

Snatches food from surface of water while flying past, and chases other birds to force them to disgorge food, which is caught in flight before it hits the water.

Courtship

In a spectacular courtship display, male Magnificent Frigatebirds sit in varying size groups, throat sacs inflated, clattering their bills, waving their heads back and forth, quivering their wings, and calling to females flying overhead.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Flat or slightly hollowed platform of sticks and twigs, some lined with finer material such as grass or vines. Placed on flat tops of low bushes or trees. Nests in colonies.

Egg Description

White.

Clutch Size

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless.

Conservation Status

Populations appear to be declining, due mainly to human destruction of habitat for housing and resorts, and disturbance in colonies. Introduced predators on islands and over-fishing are also potential problems.

Other Names

Frégate superbe (French)
Tijerata de Mar, Fragata magnífica (Spanish)
Man-o'-War-bird (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Diamond, A. W., and E. A. Schreiber. 2002. Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens). In The Birds of North America, No. 601 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.