Ascension Island frigatebird
| Ascension frigatebird | |
|---|---|
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| Male with chick at Boatswain Bird Island | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | Fregatidae |
| Genus: | Fregata |
| Species: | F. aquila |
| Binomial name | |
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Fregata aquila (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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The Ascension frigatebird (Fregata aquila) is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae which breeds on Boatswain Bird Island and Ascension Island in the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
The Ascension frigatebird is a large lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage and a deeply forked tail. It has a wingspan of around 2 m (6.6 ft). The male has a striking red gular sac which it inflates to attract a mate. The female is slightly larger than the male and has a brown breast-band and sometimes a white belly. They feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (mostly flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food.
The Ascension frigatebird was described by Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Pelecanus aquilus. His specimen had been collected from the Ascension Island by the Swedish explorer Pehr Osbeck.
The names "frigatebird" and Fregata derive from the French mariners' name for the bird La Frégate, a frigate or fast warship. The specific aquila is Latin for an eagle, and refers to the dark plumage and rapacious habits.
The genus Fregata formerly included all four species of large frigatebirds but in 1914 the Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews split off the other three species leaving Fregata aquila to denote the Ascension frigatebird. An analysis of ribosomal and DNA indicates that within the Fregata genus, the Ascension frigatebird is most closely related to the magnificent frigatebird.
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Wikipedia