Frigate Bird (called also frigate pelican and man-of-war bird), a tropical web-footed bird, belonging to the family pelecanidce (Gray), and to the genus tetchypetes (Vieillot). The bill is longer than the head, strong, hooked at the end, and sharp; wings long and pointed, the first two quills the longest; the tail lengthened, deeply forked, of 12 feathers; the tarsi short and strong, feathered for half their length; toes long, united by a deeply indented web; claws curved, small, and pectinated, the latter character (according to Audubon) enabling the bird to remove insects from parts of the body and head beyond the reach of the bill; at the base of the lower mandible is a small orange-colored sac, capable of distention.

The neck is short and stout, and the body slender; the plumage is compact, the eyelids, sac, and front of the upper neck bare. The color of the adult male, in the fourth year, is brownish black, with green and purple reflections; the wings are tinged with gray and brown; the tail dark brown, the shafts white underneath; bill pale purplish blue, white in the middle, and dusky at the tip; iris dark brown; feet reddish above, orange below. In the female the sides of the neck and a broad space on the breast are white, the wings and tail more brown, and the plumage of the back less shining. The length to end of tail is 41 in., the extent of wings 7 ft. or more, and the weight about 3 1/2; lbs. Only two species are described by Gray, the T. aquilus (Vieill.), very generally distributed in the tropical regions of the globe, and the Australian species, T. ariel (Gould). In proportion to their size, their wings are longer than in any other bird; their flight is so powerful that they are seen more than 1,000 m. from land, and so rapid that they descend upon their prey with a velocity surpassing that of the swiftest falcons; they can glide smoothly along like a kite, and breast the hurricane without apparent effort, rising with ease above the tempest clouds whenever they please; they often fly in flocks so high as to be scarcely visible.

They move with great difficulty on land, and rarely alight on the water; by raising the wings perpendicularly and spreading the half-erect tail, they readily ascend from a level surface. They do not dive in search of food, but obtain it on the wing; the smallness of the webs prevents them from being good swimmers. The food consists principally of fish, which their acute sight enables them to detect from a great height; when one sees a shoal of fish, he swoops rapidly down, but does not plunge, quickly changing his course and swimming along the surface with the neck and feet stretched horizontally; then raising the wings above the back, and fixing them one against the other, the bird darts at its prey, which it rarely fails to seize. It follows the shoals of flying fishes, and catches them in the air; it also picks up dead fish and floating garbage like the gulls; during the nesting period young birds form a favorite article of food, its own nestlings suffering in like manner from the turkey buzzards.

But its favorite way of providing for its wants, and that which has given it its warlike name, is that pursued by the bald eagle with the fish hawk; possessing great strength, and with superior power of wing, it pursues the terns and gulls which have secured a fish, and by beating them with wings and beak forces them to drop or disgorge it; then descending with great rapidity, it seizes the prey before it reaches the water. It is believed by some that frigate birds harass the pelicans and boobies in this manner, but Audubon and others say that this is not the case, as these large birds, with a single stroke of their powerful bills, could easily destroy their aggressors. They are very quarrelsome, and the robbers despoil the original thief whenever opportunity offers. With all this strength of wing, Audubon says the keel of the sternum is no more developed than that of the short-flying grouse and partridge, showing the insufficiency of this bony crest as a means of indicating the power of flight. They are not shy; when shot at and wounded they disgorge the contents of the stomach, generally of the most fetid character; their only note is rough and croaking, and very seldom uttered; the flesh is totally unfit for food.

They are rarely found further north than Charleston, S. C, but are abundant in the south from Florida to Texas, and in California. These marine vultures, as they have been called, breed in great numbers on the Florida keys, generally making their nests of coarse sticks in mangrove trees, beginning about the middle of May; the eggs are two or three, about three inches long and two broad, of a greenish white color; the young grow slowly, and are fed by regurgitation.

Frigate Bird (Tachypetes aquilus).