2023 April Bird

The featured bird for April 2023 is a juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird flying overhead.

Magnificent Frigatebirds are very large seabirds that are easily recognizable when flying above because their silhouette reminds of a Pterodactyl with those long wings and the forked tail.

Family: Fregatidae
Species: Fregata magnificens
Length: 35 – 45 in (89-114 cm)
Wingspan: 85 – 88 in (217-224 cm)
Weight: 35 – 67 oz (1000-1900 g)

Magnificent Frigatebirds are mostly seen while soaring high up in the air along the coast in the Southern US, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Here in the Tampa Bay region, we are lucky that they also have a few islands where they breed. But you have to take a boat to those islands to see them “not flying”. If not flying, they’re to be found on trees – hardly ever on the water despite having webbed feet.

Also sometimes referred to as “man-o-war birds”, they’re really pirates. They steal food from other birds in the air – sometimes even harassing them enough to get those other birds to regurgitate their food. Juvenile birds will practice this by flying with sticks and dropping and catching them.

The female, male, and juvenile Magnificent Frigatebirds are easily distinguishable, if you get close enough. The juvenile has a white head and white chest – as in the featured photo. The adults have black heads. The adult female has a white chest and the adult male has red skin on the throat. During mating season, the male Magnificent Frigatebird inflates the red skin like a balloon and drums on it with its bill to attract females. A drumming bird!

The frigatebird is one of my absolute favorite birds. Not because of its thieving behavior or the red drum, but because of their striking elegance in flight. They also have shown up at all the happier-making Caribbean vacations I’ve taken and have become a reminder that whenever life gets a bit tough, just go see a frigate bird. And then I moved to where they breed.

So to me it doesn’t matter when and where I took this particular frigate bird photo, I just know that I was very, very happy when I did.

Purchase the 2023 calendar