Frigate Birds

If the ship's cook pitched a load of foodscraps into the sea, the frigatebirds would easily abandon the journey and carefullly dive for the scraps. Frigatebirds don't have waterproof feathers, so they can't dive into the sea for fish. Instead they are more like active scavengers -- looking for dead things on the surface of the water or helpless small creatures on land such as baby boobies.

The most exciting pictures and experiences came at Sea Lion Island and North Seymour Island where the frigate birds were up close and displaying their inflated throat sacs for courtship. The sacs were barely noticeable most of the time, a red patch perhaps the size of a quarter with little hint of their inflationary capacity. In the nest, however, you can see how big they get. The males inflate their throat sacs just like male peacocks parade their feathers -- in hopes of getting a mate. Apparently they sit in their nests all puffed up and wait for a female to approach and be wooed.

There are 2 species of frigate birds with these large red throat sacs. The male magnificent frigatebird has a purple sheen to his back feathers whereas the male great frigatebird has a green sheen. The sheen isn't very visible in these pictures. Females have a distinguishing colormark, too. The female magnificent frigatebird has a blue-green circle around her eye, whereas the female great frigatebird has a red circle. You can see the circles pretty well below.

Lucky us, it was also frigatebird breeding season. We got to see babies on Sea Lion Island just NW off the shore of Isla San Cristobol. I thought they were cute!