This is a Magnificent Frigatebird, a sea bird, but of course, not a gull. They are kleptoparrasitic, that is they make their living by attacking and harrassing gulls and terns until they regurgitate or drop their food. Males have a red pouch which they inflate when they are displaying to their females at the nest. Females and immatures have white heads. At 9 this morning we pushed out of the marina at Haulover in Bascayne way. I was on a trip boat that takes fishermen a couple of miles off shore to spend the morning in pursuit of dinner. I was just onboard for the ride and take photographs of the Frigates and hopefully Dolphins if they showed up which they didnt by the way. I found these frigates the hardest bird I have ever photographed, the combinations of black against the bright skyline was just so hard to deal with so there was a lot of wastage of photos today but I ended up with some nice ones. At times out at sea today it was very quiet, neither myself or the fishermen were as busy as we would have liked. I took most of my pictures when we were on the way out to the fishing grounds and also on the way back. It wasnt long after we got out of the inlet and in to open water before the first Frigate showed up, he was quickly joined by a few more, 5 in total. They are very acrobatic and agile in flight. It was a nice relaxing morning.
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