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Great Frigatebird | Fregata minor
Grote fregatvogel | Rabihorcado Grande
The Great Frigatebird is the frigatebird most often seen in the Mozambique Channel; the nearest colony is on Europa Island. With its huge wingspan and low weight it soars over the sea for days without ever landing on the water.
Voice
Silent at sea. At the colony males give a yodelling, gurgling call interspersed with bill-clattering; females give a harsh kwah.
Recording: AUDEVARD Aurélien — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
86–100 cm long, wingspan 206–230 cm. Built like other frigatebirds: narrow, angled wings, long forked tail and a long, hooked bill. The male is wholly black with a green gloss, a pale brown bar across the upperwing, pink to red feet and a bright red gular pouch inflated like a balloon in display. The female has a grey-white throat, a white breast that does not extend into the armpit, and a pink to red eye-ring. Juveniles have a white head washed rusty and a white breast and belly. Females are larger than males.
Confusion species
Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel) is smaller; the male has white flank patches that extend into the armpit, and the female a black throat and a white breast that reaches under the wing in a point. In the Great Frigatebird the male's underparts are uniformly black and the female's white does not run into the wing.
Habitat
Open tropical ocean, often far offshore over warm, deep water. Takes flying fish and squid at the surface and robs tropicbirds and boobies of their catch. Breeds colonially in bushes and low trees on remote islands.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region a scarce visitor along the coast of Mozambique, rarer to KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape; after tropical cyclones birds are sometimes blown far inland, as far as Zimbabwe. Beyond the region it breeds on tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, with colonies on Europa and Aldabra, in the Pacific and on a few islands in the South Atlantic.
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Pelagic trips from Ponta do Ouro and Inhambane in the austral summer give the best chance; birds often hang high over a shoal of feeding fish or above the boat. After cyclones check the coasts of Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal, and large inland lakes too.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened, although the population is declining. Threats include predation by introduced rats and cats, disturbance and habitat loss on breeding islands, and the taking of birds for food.
Scientific name
Fregata minor | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Pelecanus minor; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Fregata was introduced in 1799 by De Lacépède. Fregata derives from the French frégate, 'frigate', a fast warship — for the swift flight and the habit of robbing other seabirds. minor is Latin for 'smaller' — Gmelin used it to distinguish it from a larger frigatebird, although this is in fact one of the larger species. The specimen the first description was based on came from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean (designated later).