Magnificent Frigatebirds Drying Their Wings Postcard

"Magnificent Frigatebirds Drying Their Wings, North Seymour Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador" by Catherine Sherman. Magnificent Frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) aren't waterproof, so when they get wet they must spread their wings and dry off. The Magnificent Frigatebirds are nesting in a colony on this sandy and rocky island with sparse vegetation. Having the largest wingspan-to-body-weight ratio of any bird, they are mostly aerial, able to stay aloft for long periods. Because they have no oil on their feathers, they never float on the water. They land only to roost or breed, but their breeding period is exceptionally long so they do spend a long time on land. Males and females incubate the eggs for around 56 days, and once hatched, chicks don't leave the nest until they are about 167 days old. Even after they leave the nest, females continue to feed them until they are one year old. They produce only one egg per breeding season. With its extraordinarily long wings and deeply forked tail, the magnificent frigatebird is unmistakable when seen in flight. The massive wingspan enables the magnificent frigatebird to soar effortlessly, and make graceful aerial manoeuvres, which so captivated Charles Darwin that he dubbed this species the condor of the ocean. Frigatebirds are the only seabird family that have obvious, significant differences in plumage between male and female. The male magnificent frigatebird has entirely black plumage, glossed green on the head and purple on the upper wings and back, and possesses a bare patch of skin on the lower neck, known as the gular sac. This sac can be inflated into a bright red balloon-like organ, which is used to attract females during courtship, while outside the breeding season, the patch fades to orange and becomes barely visible. The female magnificent frigatebird is larger than the male, lacks a gular sac, and has less glossy, brownish-black plumage, with a white patch across the breast and upper belly, three white lines on the underwing and a diagonal off-white line running along the upper wing. Juveniles resemble the adult female, except for the head, which is entirely white. The frigatebird is sometimes called the "man-o-war bird" because it harasses other birds until they regurgitate recently captured food, which the frigatebird snatches in midair. Because this bird likes to steal food from other birds, it has been named after the pirate frigate ships of old. The bird can't swim, has short legs making it difficult to walk and has little protective oil on its feathers so it avoids getting wet. It snatches food from the surface of the ocean with its curved beak avoiding the water.