Frigatebirds | Fregatidae

Fregatvogels | Rabihorcados

The plumage is barely water-repellent and the feet are far too small to swim with or to take off from water, so everything has to happen in the air. Flying fish and squid are snatched from the surface in a low sweep without the bird getting wet, and other seabirds are chased and pulled by tail or wing until they let go of their catch, which is caught as it falls. A very large wing area on a light body lets them soar on thermals for days on end and sleep on the wing far out at sea. The nest is a loose platform of sticks in a low shrub on an island, where the male inflates a bright red throat pouch into a balloon for weeks at a time and accompanies it, wings spread wide, with a rattling drumming. A single chick is raised, dependent for so long that a pair does not breed every year.