I was deep inside the desolation when a rain shower came sweeping in from the north. Beneath the stormy sky and with the wind howling through the open remains of the scrub forest, it's as ragged and forlorn feeling as a Charles Dickens cemetery on a dark winter day. Now black, barkless skeletons of low-growing trees are heavily festooned with dark green morning glory vines and weedy members of the Cucumber Family. People in town have chopped it to pieces gathering firewood, then Hurricane Isadora tore the land up, and finally last year it was all burned. But if the victim seems vulnerable, a long chase may take place, ending with an exchange of gut content.īut Karen wasn't concerned with any of that, just with the eerie and beautiful silhouette suspended above her, and I do believe that I saw in Karen's face a glimmer of primal recognition of the fact that the world is more surreal and full of the unexpected than on a sunny day we'd ever like to admit.įrom the AugNewsletter issued from Hacienda San Juan near Telchac Pueblo, northwestern Yucatán, MéxicoĪcross the road from Hacienda San Juan, for as far as you can see, the scrub is a real mess. A frigatebird's first attack on a potential victim can often be interpreted as "sizing up the victim." If the victim turns out to be a healthy, strong flier, the frigatebird typically breaks off the chase. One study conducted in Mexico found that Magnificent Frigatebird kleptoparasitism is often a two-step affair. This may even amount to forcing victims to regurgitate food already eaten. Magnificent Frigatebirds are "kleptoparasites" - they sometimes chase down birds of other species and steal their food. You can see a picture approximating what Karen saw, see the bird's semitropical US distribution (CBC map link over at the left) and read more about it here. In the midday glare Karen saw a silhouette with narrow, bent wings 90 inches across, and a long, deeply forked tail. It was a Magnificent Frigatebird almost stationary some 30 feet above her, hanging like a kite in the stiff breeze. When she did, the look on her face was classic, the transfixed expression of a person seeing something both eerie and beautiful. Once while Karen was hunched over a pile of shells I called to her to look into the sky above her. Adult females have black heads and throats but white chests.įrom the FebruNewsletter issued from Hacienda San Juan near Telchac Pueblo, northwestern Yucatán, México Those with white heads and chests are immatures, while the ones with all-black heads and chests are males. On a sun-filled morning, Magnificent Frigatebirds adorned themselves on a snag, preening and spreading their long, slender wings against the sun, as shown below: A mature, completely black-feathered male is below her.Ī picture of an immature with a fully white head is shown below.įrom the JanuNewsletter issued from Río Lagartos, on the Yucatan Peninsula's northern coast (~N21.60°, ~W88.16°), Yucatán state, MÉXICO A mature female with her black head and broad, white chest band is shown at the top of this page. Nowadays we have many more immatures and females than mature males. When visitors see immature and female birds without such pouches, sometimes they're not sure what they're seeing. In field guides usually mature males are illustrated inflating their female-attracting, red throat pouches. With wingspreads of up to 7-½ feet (2.3m), these are impressive presences! Of all birds on Earth, frigatebirds have the lightest body weight (2-3 lbs, 1.1kg) in relation to their wing area. Nearly always you can see one to several sailing along the beach or hovering over the water's edge. Now that migrant birds who nest up North are gone, the most conspicuous bird along the beach is the Magnificent Frigatebird. From the JNewsletter issued from written at Mayan Beach Garden Inn 20 kms north of Mahahual, Quintana Roo, México
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