The Magnificent Frigatebird can often be seen soaring along the shoreline in Bonaire. I have just discovered I caught one unintentionally on a slide during my June visit while taking a close-up of an Iguana on a fence wall oceanside at Habitat. For those who do not know this bird, it is a common sight on Bonaire; a large (38-40") black bird with very long pointed wings and a deeply forked tail. The females have a white breast; the males have a bright red throat pouch that is inflated during courtship. These birds have the largest wingspan in proportion to bodyweight of any bird, and will not land on the ground or water, due to the difficulty in getting back into flight. They are most often seen perched on tree branches, which asists them in taking off in flight.

Frigatebirds will swoop down and catch flying fish and also harass a booby or other seabird until it drops its catch, and snatch the fish out of the air.

For anyone traveling in the Cancun area, Isla Contoy is a nesting sanctuary for Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans and day trips can be arranged with a naturalist to see the courtship displays.

Harass a booby?Are you talkin' to me?

Wonderful Frigate pictures!

Ellen, Thanks for adding the pictures! I can almost feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair!! Wonderful shots - are they yours? I think they must be after the sunset you sent me. Great eye :-)

Yes, Dara, I took those pictures. I have some older pictures of frigatebirds but my scanner is not so great so I went out and took some new pictures last week especially for your topic! The two pictures with the blue sky were taken in Sorobon and the other at Playa Lechi.

Ellen, beautiful pictures; really brings me back to Sorobon. Since you bypassed your scanner, are they digital photos, with telephoto?

Niki, I used a Sony DCR-TRV510 Digital 8 camcorder which has a digital still camera function and is equipped with a 20x variable speed(2.4-45 seconds) optical zoom lens. In 35mm equivalent, the optical lens offers 39-780mm zoom capability.

Wow.

Kerri, here is your booby!



Brown Booby

A medium-sized dark brown bird, mostly seen at sea or along the coast skimming the waves with its wings hardly beating. Its lower parts are buffcoloured and the large bill is very conspicuous. It catches fish by suddenly changing from flight into a dive into the waves.

Boobies do not breed on our islands but they do have roosting sites on all three islands. The best known of these is the one at Malmok on Bonaire.(from "Our Birds" by Dr. Bart A. De Boer)

I took this picture at Lac Cai.

Wow! Frigatebirds, Brown Boobies, Troupials, Flamingos, Parrots, etc. etc. etc. I can't believe I will be seeing them for myself in March! Thanks for the previews!

And who was teasing Cec Berry about (ahem)private parts? What's the old joke I know I had two when I came. A question,Ellen. The Frigate birds,as they came across on my TV anyway,appeared to be a type of drawing.Very angular and beautifully placed. The placement, of course, would be your artistic eye. But the stylized appearance of the Frigate Birds,as opposed to my,you should excuse the expression,Booby,which is very natural looking (oh gawd,I swear I'm not joking)and naturally rounded...is that a difference in camera? your scanner? or something you are doing?I know they are all photographs,so I wondered.Unlike Niki however,I'll need words of l syllable.

Kerri, All that I did with the frigatebird pictures was crop them and fiddle with the brightness and contrast a bit. The frigatebird in flight just naturally has an angular appearance. I used the same camera for both birds.