wow, a Great Frigatebird !! my lifer !!
Since frigatebirds are very rare here, even with SEABIRD guide books, the
variations still confused us.
Thanks David and Mike, it's very informative and a lot help to us :)
Cheers,
Smew Mao
Hsinchu, Taiwan
>>>>> Original Message <<<<<
From: DavidJames
To: "MikeCarter";"RohanClarke";"JeffDavies";""
Cc: "Birding_Aus"
Sent Date: Tue,27 May 2014 15:29:10 Asia/Taipei
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] help for frigatebird identification
Hi Smew and Mike,
thanks for passing this on Mike. I only watch birding-aus through the archives
site and not always, but the archives is not always working lately.
Anyway, to the point, I'd call it a Greater. The belly patch is quite pointy at
the front and back, like a diamond (if you hide the spurs). Lesser has a
triangular belly patch so it is never pointy at the front margin. CI Frigate
has a hexagonal belly patch which can be broadly indented but never pointy at
the front, and is always broad at the back. Greater usually has an oval belly
patch, but it can be pinched at the front and back to look more like a diamond.
The belly patch is out of range for lesser and CI, but in range (at the
extreme) for Great. The spurs come off the middle-sides of the belly patch so
that is wrong for Lesser (spurs at front of belly patch) but typical for CI and
Great. They point straight out along the wing (good for Great and Lesser), not
angling forward as in CI. The bill is not strikingly long for a frigatebird,
which counts against CI. The alar bars on the upperwing are not very
pronounced, which tends towards males and Great or Lesser but not CI. The
innerwing is narrow and slender which tends towards Lesser or Great but away
from CI. Thus there are features that rule out Lesser and CI , while
everything I can see suits Great well.
I hope this helps
Cheers,David JamesSydney==============================
From: Mike Carter <> To: 'David James'
<>; Rohan Clarke <>; Jeff
Davies <> Sent: Tuesday, 27 May 2014 11:05 AM Subject:
Fw: [Birding-Aus] help for frigatebird identification
Have you seen this. In my opinion it is not a Lesser and I think most likely a
Greater. What do you think?Mike Carter30 Canadian Bay RoadMount Eliza VIC
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