Great Frigatebird
Fregata minor (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Fregatidae — Frigatebirds
Great Frigatebird, Fregata minor, is a seabird of the frigatebird family that breeds across tropical oceans, with colonies on islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans and a small presence in the tropical Atlantic east of Brazil. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely over tropical Indian waters and across tropical and subtropical parts of the Pacific. It is a large, lightly built bird. The female is bigger than the adult male and shows a white throat and breast, while the male has a purple-green sheen on the scapulars and can inflate a red throat sac when breeding.
- Order
- Suliformes
- Family
- Fregatidae — Frigatebirds
- Breeding range
- Tropical Ocean: widespread, islands of tropical Indian and Pacific oceans, local e of e Brazil (tropical Atlantic Ocean)
- Nonbreeding range
- pelagic, ranging throughout tropical Indian and tropical and subtropical Pacific oceans
