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4

Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor) Alternate name(s): "Greater Frigate-bird", "Man-o'-war Bird*", "Man-o'-war Hawk*", "Seahawk*" Size: 85-105 cm; wing span 2.05-2.3 m Weight: 1.0-1.45 kg (male), 1.2-1.6 kg (female)

Australia: Family Group 4 Family Group 4 Table Australian Pelican Red-tailed Tropicbird White-tailed Tropicbird Great Frigatebird Lesser Frigatebird Australasian Gannet Masked Booby Red-footed Booby Brown Booby Darter Great Cormorant Little Black Cormorant Little Pied Cormorant Pied Cormorant Black-faced Cormorant Imperial Shag Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Great Frigatebirds are large seabirds with dimorphic plumage. Male Frigatebirds are predominantly black, with a grey bill and eye ring and pink feet. They have a scarlet throat sac which, when not inflated, shows as a red spot on the throat. Females are black and white. They have a white breast and belly. The legs are pink. The colour of the bill and eye ring depends on race. The bill of a Great Frigatebird is narrow and extremely hooked. Immature have grey mottling on breast and throat; otherwise they resemble female Great Frigatebirds. Juveniles have a buff head and a black breast band. Twitcher's tip Compared to Lesser Frigatebirds, Great Frigatebirds do not have any white markings on their inner wings.

Taxonomy, classification See Great Frigatebird at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Great Frigatebird is available HERE . Great Frigatebirds populate parts of the tropical and subtropical oceans. The five races combined have a range extending from the tropical African East coast and Madagascar across the Indian Ocean, via the South-east Asian islands (including Indonesia and New Guinea) and the South China Sea through to the Pacific Ocean. There they can be found from the Australian East coast to California in the USA and farther South, to about -30 degrees latitude. There is a separate population in the South Atlantic Ocean, to the East of Brazil. Along the Australian continental coast they can occasionally be found anywhere from the Top End of the NT in the West to Fraser Island, QLD, in the East. Strays are found only rarely farther South along the Australian East coast, to about the NSW Central Coast. Great Frigatebirds spend most of the non-breeding season on the seas around their breeding colonies, which are located on oceanic islands. They will enter continental coastal waters only infrequently.

Sightings Click here for sighting information M. Mearns reports seeing Great Frigatebirds at Lady Elliot Island, off the coast of QLD near Agnes Water, in January 2006 and again in January 2016. H. Mouritsen reports spotting a Great Frigatebird on One Tree Island, Capricornia Cays NP, near Rockhampton, QLD, in January 2011. D. Williams and M. Roderick report spotting a Great Frigatebird at Newcastle Harbour, NSW, in January 2015. M. Eaton reports finding a Great Frigatebird at Chili Beach, Cape York peninsula, QLD, in August 2019.

Photos

Race "minor" or "palmerstoni"?

ADULT

MALE

Near-frontal view of a male Great Frigatebird; note the feathers on the side of the gular sac (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Near-frontal view of a male Great Frigatebird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Lateral view of a male Great Frigatebird; note the feathers on the side of the gular sac (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

FEMALE

Near-lateral view of a female Great Frigatebird in flight (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Lateral view of a female Great Frigatebird in flight (photo courtesy of H. Mouritsen)
[One Tree Island, Capricornia Cays NP, QLD, January 2011]

Lateral view of a female Great Frigatebird in flight (photo courtesy of D. Williams)
[Newcastle Harbour, NSW, January 2015]

Ventral view of a female Great Frigatebird in flight (photo courtesy of D. Williams)
[Newcastle Harbour, NSW, January 2015]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal view of an immature female Great Frigatebird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Near-frontal view of an immature female Great Frigatebird perched in a tree; the white breast characterises this bird as a female, while the bluish eye-ring indicates an immature bird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, QLD, January 2006]

Lateral view of an immature female Great Frigatebird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Lateral view of an immature female Great Frigatebird (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Female Great Frigatebird, centre, and two immature males, left and right, in flight (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Wed, 21 August 2019, 4:18 +00:00