This time it’s another graphite and watercolor illustration for John Vigor’s article in Good Old Boat magazine. Magnificent Frigatebirds aren’t new to us, but I never get to paint them – and they sure aren’t around Port Townsend. We’ve seen them while we were camping on the beaches in Mexico, we saw them often while we sailed Ave Mariadown the Baja Coast and up into the Sea of Cortez. Just last year we saw them at Everglades National Park, soaring over the mosquitoes at Flamingo.
These birds are real aerial pirates that never, I mean never, land on water. They soar endlessly along oceanic coastlines even as they sleep. In fact, the only other bird species known to spend days AND nights in flight is the common swift. But being amazingly good at one thing usually means we’re goofy at anything else, and so the frigatebird cannot walk, swim or take off from a flat surface (we’re talking about jumping off a cliff ). Frigatebirds sport a very wicked upper bill that angles down like a fish hook, enabling the birds to latch onto morsels as they fly by, or, they steal it from other birds (chicks in nests included). At 90 inches, frigatebirds have the longest wingspan relative to weight of any bird on the planet. The reddish throat pouch-thingy on males inflates during courtship or while the male is nest-sitting, giving them a rather bizarre look. When I saw a kid (centuries ago) I remember they were called “Man O’war” after the old frigates, which the big birds use to follow for food scrapes.
And you all thought I was just a painter.
Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert
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