학급 수업 자료 · Wildlife · 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands

Frigatebird

The sky pirate of the Pacific with an enormous red balloon chest

A male frigatebird perched in a tree with its bright red throat pouch inflated like a balloon

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

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Frigatebirds are large black seabirds with long hooked beaks and forked tails. The male has a bright red throat pouch that he puffs up like a big balloon to impress females. Frigatebirds are brilliant fliers and spend most of their lives in the air over the ocean - they can even sleep while flying!

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Great frigatebirds are one of the most common seabirds in the Marshall Islands. They have wingspans of up to two metres but weigh less than two kilograms - their bones are almost hollow to keep them light. This makes them incredibly fast and agile in the air, able to dive and twist at high speed.

Frigatebirds are famous for a trick called kleptoparasitism - a big word that means stealing food from other birds. A frigatebird will chase a booby or tern that has caught a fish, harassing it in the air until the other bird drops its meal. Then the frigatebird swoops and catches the food before it hits the water.

Male frigatebirds gather in trees at nesting time and inflate their bright red throat pouches for hours, calling out to attract females flying overhead. When a female chooses a mate, they build a nest together from sticks and raise one chick at a time. The chick is white and fluffy and completely different from its sleek black parents.

Despite being a seabird, frigatebirds cannot land on water - their feathers are not waterproof. They must catch everything in the air or from the surface without getting wet. This is one reason they are so skilled at stealing from other birds rather than doing all the fishing themselves.

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토론 질문

  1. 01Frigatebirds steal food from other birds. Do you think that is a clever strategy or an unfair one? Explain your thinking.
  2. 02Why might having hollow bones be an advantage for a bird that spends most of its life flying?
  3. 03The male frigatebird uses a bright red pouch to attract a mate. What other animals use colours or decorations to impress?
  4. 04How is a frigatebird like a kite? How is it different?
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학급 활동

Write a one-day diary entry as a frigatebird. What did you see from high in the sky? Did you spot a fish? Did you have to chase another bird? Include at least three facts from the lesson in your diary entry.

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