Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor)




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-colored throat pouches called "gular pouches", which they inflate to attract females during the mating season.



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 is fused to the breastbone. Although there is 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 do not land in the ocean. The gular sac is used as part of a courtship display and is, perhaps, the most striking frigatebird feature.

Male Magnificent Frigatebird, Fregata magnificens displaying

Male Great Frigatebird nesting on Genvoesa in the Galapagos - Public DomainBreeding behavior

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 cannot 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, they will 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.


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 behavior, kleptoparasitism is not 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%.

Great Frigatebirds would patrol the island looking for unwary Sooty Tern chicks. This behaviour is pretty much only undertaken by older females and juvenile and immatures. Having snatched a chick other young birds would harry the snatcher and the unfortunate chick could be carried by several frigatebirds before being eaten.

Ascension Frigatebird (Fregata aquila) Species


Female Christmas Frigatebird or Christmas Island Frigatebird

Immature Great Frigatebird snatching prey item (Sooty Tern chick) from ocean surface.


