Creature Feature – Christmas Frigatebird
This week is the letter ‘F’, and today’s featured creature is the (Christmas) Frigatebird.
Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans and have the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird!
Taxonomy
Scientific Name: Fregata andrewsi
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Suliformes
Family: Fregatidae
Genus: Fregata
Christmas Frigatebird Fact File
Size: Individuals measure up to 1m in length (with a wingspan up to 2.3m) and weigh up to 1.5kg
Distribution: Christmas Island frigatebirds get their name from the fact that they breed exclusively on Christmas Island, an island off the north-western coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean
Diet: This species spends a large proportion of time at sea, plucking squid and fish from the surface of the water
Behaviour: They also employ a method of feeding called kleptoparasitism; where they steal other birds’ food by forcing them to regurgitate. Males have a distinctive red gular pouch, which they inflate during the breeding season to attract females
IUCN Status: Vulnerable. Endemic to Christmas Island, individuals breed in one of only four main nesting colonies. Its breeding habitat is affected by the invasive yellow crazy ant, which is a key threat to many species on the island. They are also threatened by hunting, getting trapped in fishing gear, habitat destruction for phosphate mining, and the ecological fallout from the phosphate dust
