Wild Facts

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves last night and brought the New Year in with a bang.  I am sure some of you are nursing a headache so I will try my best not to use too many big words.  This is the last fact of a week dedicated to the birthplace of evolution. Don’t cry though! I  have barely scratched the surface of the Galapagos Island animal species so I am sure we will see more before we reach Wild Fact #1.  I am going to end the week talking about a cool looking bird called a Frigate but also known as the Man O’War.

The frigate is considered a seabird and lives away from land, however, they are not waterproof like most other seabirds.  This means they tend to stay out of the water.  I wonder if this makes them an outcast in the seabird world? This shunning might explain their bad behaviour!  Although, they may not swim too well the frigate bird is very acrobatic in the air and can out maneouvre most birds and they use this to their advantage. Earlier this week I had mentioned that finding food on the Galapagos Islands can be difficult.  Well, the frigate has solved this problem by being a modern day pirate of the bird world. No, I dont mean they have a wooden leg and wear an eye patch.  They simply wait until other birds have caught food and they go and steal it from them.  They intimidate smaller birds while swooping into catch the food that has been dropped. These bullies of the sky will also steal nesting material from other birds. I guess anything goes when it comes to survival.  The frigate doesn’t always rely on it’s kleptomania to be fed. These aerially gifted birds can actually swoop down and snatch fish from the surface of the water while only getting their beak wet.  This is impressive and important since frigates don’t do well in the water. This survival strategy must work since these birds are doing fairly well for themselves.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about the Galapagos Islands as I have enjoyed writing about it.  Have a great weekend!