Magnificent frigatebird
| Magnificent frigatebird | |
|---|---|
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| Male on Espanola, Galapagos, Ecuador | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | Fregatidae |
| Genus: | Fregata |
| Species: | F. magnificens |
| Binomial name | |
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Fregata magnificens Mathews, 1914 |
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| Range map | |
The magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of 89–114 centimetres (35–45 in) it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters off America, between northern Mexico and Ecuador on the Pacific coast and between Florida and southern Brazil along the Atlantic coast. There are also populations on the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific and the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic.
The magnificent frigatebird is a large, lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage, long narrow wings and a deeply forked tail. 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 white breast and belly. Frigatebirds feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (often flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food.
Christopher Columbus encountered magnificent frigatebirds when passing the Cape Verde Islands on his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. His journal for the voyage survives in a version made in the 1530s by Bartolomé de las Casas. The entry for 29 September reads in English:
They saw a bird that is called a frigatebird, which makes the boobies throw up what they eat in order to eat it herself, and she does not sustain herself on anything else. It is a seabird, but does not alight on the sea nor depart from land 20 leagues. There are many of these on the islands of Cape Verde.
In the 15th century text the name of the bird is written as rabiforçado. The modern Spanish word for a frigatebird is rabihorcado or "forked tail". A population of magnificent frigatebirds once bred on the Cape Verde Islands but is now probably extinct.
The word frigatebird derives from the French mariners' name for the bird La Frégate - a frigate or fast warship. The etymology of the name was given by French naturalist Jean-Baptiste du Tertre when describing the magnificent frigatebird in 1667. English mariners referred to frigatebirds as Man-of-War birds. This name was used by the English explorer William Dampier in his book An Account of a New Voyage Around the World published in 1697:
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