Magnificent frigate bird11/13/2023 ![]() Juveniles will leave the nest at around six months of age and accompany their mothers until they are about a year old. Fathers will leave the nest for the year around the same time while the mothers remain to continue feeding their young. ![]() Both parents incubate and feed their chicks, never leaving the nest unattended until the newborns are about three months old. Magnificent frigatebirds have one of the longest mating and incubation periods of any seabird, which totals nearly 60 days. The oldest observed frigate bird was nearly 20 years old, but their average and maximum lifespans are not known. Unlike other species of birds, they likely do not mate for life. Once females have selected one mate for the season, they will lay one egg. To find a mate, males will inflate their throat pouch to look like a large red balloon and complete mating dances which involve raising their bills high into the air, vibrating their wings, swiveling their bodies back and forth, and calling out with their harsh, guttural vocals. Nests are often clustered close together and built by females who use materials brought to them by the mates they choose. Large colonies of frigatebirds gather on coastal islands for the breeding season, which happens in the cooler months of the year depending on where they live. Very rarely will frigatebirds cross large areas of land, but occasionally they will be seen near large bodies of fresh water when crossing oceans through Florida or Panama. They will forage in lagoons and on open water, nesting in short-growing vegetation like shrubs and mangroves and rocky areas on small islands. They can be seen all year long in Hawaii and the Florida Keys, from June to August in Flower Garden Banks, and sometimes in Gray’s Reef national marine sanctuaries. They spend most of their lives soaring over tropical and subtropical regions of the ocean throughout the Americas. Unlike other species of seabird, frigatebirds don’t have waterproof feathers, so they rarely land on the water to make sure they can maintain their body temperatures. Young frigatebirds will learn how to steal food from other birds by observing adults and practice through play behavior - groups of juveniles will carry sticks in their mouths, chasing each other until one member of the group drops their stick, and the others will dive below to catch it. ![]() Sometimes referred to as the “man-o-war bird”, they will harass and chase other birds until they give up recently captured food, even if they already ate it. They are opportunistic feeders, meaning they will eat almost anything they can find that is edible, and they have a reputation for piracy. The magnificent frigatebird generally feeds on small fish but will also feast on squid, jellyfish, crustaceans, newly hatched sea turtles, and even other birds or eggs by snatching these animals from their habitat without landing. Males and females both have black feathers all over their bodies except for the front, where males have bright red pouches under their throat, which they can expand for mating rituals, while females and juveniles have patches of white feathers along their chests, heads, and bellies juveniles start their lives with a tan streak on the upper part of their wings. To put this into perspective, they are the size of or larger than geese. They can reach nearly four feet in length when full grown, weighing up to five and a half pounds, and a maximum wingspan around seven feet. They are the only species of seabird in which males and females look distinctly different, a biological term known as sexual dimorphism. Magnificent frigatebirds are large seabirds with long, angular wings, a hook-tipped bill, and a forked tail. But what makes these birds so magnificent? They spend most of their lives in flight, which makes sighting one a real treat. The magnificent frigatebird ( Fregeta magnificens ) is a species of seabird found in the southern United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
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