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Magnificent Frigatebird

Fregata magnificensOrder: PELECANIFORMESFamily: Frigatebirds (Fregatidae)

Magnificent Frigatebird Male Portrait
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General

Magnificent Frigatebird: Large black seabird with orange throat patch inflated into a huge bright red-orange balloon when in courtship display. Bill is gray and hooked. Wings are long and narrow. Tail is forked; legs and feet are dark gray. Female has white breast, lacks throat patch, and has pink legs and feet. Juvenile has white head and breast and pale gray legs and feet. Frigatebirds have the longest wingspan, in proportion to weight, of all birds.

Range and Habitat

Magnificent Frigatebird: During breeding season, found in coastal Florida and in tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In non-breeding season, occurs from the coast of North Carolina south to Florida and west to Texas; also on the coast of California. Preferred habitats include ocean coasts, bays, and islands; nests on mangrove islands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"kack", "ka-ack"

Interesting Facts

  • The Magnificent Frigatebird was sometimes previously known as Man O'War, reflecting its rakish lines, speed, and aerial piracy of other birds.
  • Frigatebirds are the only seabirds where the male and female look strikingly different.
  • Although it spends most of its life flying over the ocean, it rarely if ever lands on the water.
  • A group of frigatebirds are collectively known as a "fleet" and a "flotilla" of frigatebirds.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Magnificent Frigatebird
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Fregata magnificens
Length37 - 41 Inches
Wingspan88 Inches

Magnificent Frigatebird

Magnificent Frigatebird: Large black seabird, orange throat patch inflates into a huge bright red-orange balloon when in courtship display. Long bill is gray, hooked. Wings are long and narrow. Tail is forked; legs and feet are dark gray. Eats fish, crustaceans, jellyfish. High soaring flight.

● Song: "kack", "ka-ack"

● Foraging & Feeding: Magnificent Frigatebird: Eats small fish, squid, jellyfish, crustaceans, hatchling sea turtles, young terns, birds, and their eggs; also scavenges for scraps around fishing boats and docks. Forages by shallow plunge diving or snatching food from the surface; chases terns and forces them to drop their catch.

● Breeding & nesting: Magnificent Frigatebird: One, rarely two, white eggs are laid in a flimsy platform made of sticks, grass, and stems, usually built in a mangrove, other tree, or bush, 2 to 20 feet above the ground or water; sometimes nests on the ground. Incubation ranges from 40 to 50 days and is carried out by both parents. Most females do not breed every year.

● Similar species: Magnificent Frigatebird: Great Frigatebird has pale brown wing coverts and glossy green head and back.

Flight Pattern

Graceful., Very high effortless soaring flight.
Magnificent Frigatebird Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Magnificent Frigatebird: During breeding season, found in coastal Florida and in tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In non-breeding season, occurs from the coast of North Carolina south to Florida and west to Texas; also on the coast of California. Preferred habitats include ocean coasts, bays, and islands; nests on mangrove islands.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
PopulationRare to casual
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight44.8 Ounces