Great Frigatebird - Melbourne June 2016

Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor) Melbourne June 2016.

My first ever frigatebird, and a very impressive creature. Huge but narrow wingspan, and massive gular sac (it was hanging down quite far - is this normal?).

There are currently two of these birds in Port Philip Bay, Melbourne, and I saw this one after work today over Frankston. Very far outside its normal tropical distribution, presumably blown down by the big storm this week.

Poor photo quality, due to low light and high wind, but worth posting I think!

wow that is cool! Did you actually go out in search of it, or just happen to be where it was?

Very Cool!

Chlidonias said:

wow that is cool! Did you actually go out in search of it, or just happen to be where it was?

Click to expand...

It was so cool I heard about it on twitter this morning, someone said they saw it around 9am at Frankston, which is ~10 minutes from home. But I was already at work, so figured it would be gone by the afternoon, and heard nothing telling me otherwise. But I went down anyway to check and there it was! Super easy to find, and there were a few other birders watching it at other places along the hill. They were all very excited.

This was the first time I've ever been out looking for a specific individual bird, so I was very pleased to see it. It was also the first frigatebird I've seen, which means I have now seen wild representatives of all four Suliform families.

LaughingDove said:

Very Cool!

Click to expand...

Thanks LD, its nice to make you jealous briefly, I am expecting to be much more jealous of you over the next couple of weeks!

The ones I see up here are sometimes like that. When fully inflated they're more globular, but I think this one is deflating.