Fregata magnificens                             Photo Fiona Sunquist ©

These large black birds are lightly built, with long angled wings and a deeply forked tail. They have a very distinctive, easily identifiable silhouette.

Frigate birds are almost always seen in flight, soaring high above the coastline. They dive for fish or chase other seabirds in flight to make them disgorge their catch. In the Florida Keys, Frigate birds sometimes hang around near fishing boats, waiting to intercept fish being thrown back into the water.

Males have a bright red throat pouch which they inflate during courtship. Females have a white breast patch, and immature birds have white heads and underparts.

Frigate birds are most numerous in Florida from April to September. They roost in colonies, the best known of which are at Seahorse Key near Cedar Key, on islands in Tampa Bay, and in the Indian River-Mosquito Lagoon area.
In the United States, Magnificent Frigatebirds breed only on the Dry Tortugas where about 100 nests can be found on Long Key. However they also breed in the Caribbean and in coastal areas south to Brazil.

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