Galapagos travel - magnificent Frigatebird. Galapagos holidays

Frigates belong to the order of pelican-like, among their relatives - pelicans, cormorants, gannets. The largest of the frigates, the Magnificent frigatebird, has a wingspan of more than two meters and weighs only one and a half kilograms. The word "magnificent" in this case is not only an appropriate epithet, but also the name of the whole type of frigates. Their English name - "man-of-war-birds" ("bird warriors") - speaks about the peculiarities of behavior. This is the true pirates of the oceans, ruthlessly robbing other birds. The narrow wings and long forked tail make them superb flyers capable of acrobatic stunts in the air. At the same time, their feathers quickly get wet, they swim poorly and soar from the water, they do not know how to dive at all, they are clumsy on the ground and because of this they spend most of their lives in the sky, from time to time doing short respites on trees.

Frigatebirds are superior to most birds in their aerodynamic characteristics. They have the largest bearing surface of the wings relative to body weight. Frigates can soar in the air for a long time without making any flapping of their wings. The wings of the frigates are long, narrow, and the tail forked - usually has the shape of an English letter W. Frigates swim poorly. They have no membranes on their paws. Plumage in the water gets wet. Such feathers help divers to cormorants and snakesheets, and frigates have not learned to hunt like that. They generally can not fly from the water.

They fly superbly, but they can neither swim nor dive. How do they fish? First, they hunt along with tuna and dolphins. Escaping from water predators, the fish jumps out of the water - and it meets with the frigate. Secondly, frigates use their "air superiority". They soar for hours over the water and, noticing some weaker bird (say a booby) with prey, begin to stalk it, so that the unfortunate releases a fish.

Frigatebird Island - North Seymour. Galapagos Islands. Males of frigates attract females with their magnificent inflatable red bags around their necks. At the same time they still make shrill sounds. The females have a white neck. In young males, the color is also different from the color of adult birds - their head and neck are white, their beaks are light, and there are light spots on the outer side of their wings.

Only at the age of one year young frigates begin to lead an independent lifestyle, although the size of an adult bird becomes much earlier. On Earth, frigates are completely clumsy. The structure of their short paws, which have four webbed toes with tenacious claws, enables them to sit steadily only on the branches of low-growing trees.

The Galapagos Islands are unearthly landscapes, volcanic eruptions, hundreds of marine iguanas, ashore in the rays of the setting sun, spearfishing of sea lions and much more. North Seymour island is very tiny. Its area does not exceed two square kilometers. Unlike most of the islands of the archipelago, this island is not of volcanic origin, but was formed as a result of the seismic movement of bottom soil during an Earthquake. Its surface is quite flat and does not rise above the water surface by more than 28 meters.

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