Figure 83. After two years on the Committee’s review list, the Magnificent Frigatebird quickly proved to be a rare, but essentially regular, vagrant to California. This juvenile was photographed on 7 July 1985 in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County; the date is typical of this species’ occurrence in the state (Jon L. Dunn).

 

 

 

 

 

MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD Fregata magnificens Mathews, 1914

Accepted: 10 (100%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 0	CBRC review: 1972 and 1973 records
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Color image: none

This primarily neotropical species occurs in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans and maintains a small, relict population in the Cape Verde Islands off western Africa. Breeding occurs on many islands in the eastern Pacific, from northern Peru to Baja California Sur and Sinaloa. The species is sympatric with the Great Frigatebird on the Islas Revillagigedo. During the post-breeding period small numbers drift with some regularity from the Gulf of California to the Salton Sea (and, very rarely, to southern Arizona) and along the coast as far north as Pt. Conception in Santa Barbara County. The species occurs casually northward along the coast to southern Alaska, and several northerly records have come during winter. Records are scattered across the North American interior into Canada, most of them associated with tropical cyclones. The species occurs accidentally in the British Isles, continental Europe, and the Azores. The 11 July 2003 record of an emaciated bird that later died, endorsed by the Wyoming Bird Record Committee as that state’s first, was later found to be an adult female Lesser Frigatebird (F. ariel; Faulkner 2006b).

California’s first record of the Magnificent Frigatebird came in the form of a skull found on Southeast Farallon Island in 1861 (Bryant 1888). The species is a classic post-breeding-season dispersant; more than 95% of California’s records fall between early June and mid September (McCaskie 1970e, Mlodinow 1998b, Patten et al. 2003). Coastal records extend north to Del Norte County, interior ones north to Kern and Mono Counties. Between 1971 and 1997, records from coastal southern California outnumbered those from the Salton Sea by a 3:2 ratio (Mlodinow 1998b). Using totals tabulated by Mlodinow (1998b) and supplementing them with data from NAB regional reports for 1997–2003, we find that the average number of Magnificent Frigatebirds reported in southern California has declined from 33 per year (1971–1980) to 16 per year (1981–1990) to 8 per year (1991–2003). Adult males are seldom encountered. The species has been recorded 12 times among the Channel Islands (fide P. W. Collins) and six times at Southeast Farallon Island (Richardson et al. 2003). Only records from 1972 and 1973 were reviewed.

Frigatebirds should be identified with care, especially since the very similar Great Frigatebird has now been recorded twice in California (see the following account). Both records of the Great are outside of the Magnificent’s fairly well-demarcated period of typical occurrence, suggesting that aseasonal records warrant particular scrutiny. Indeed, the accepted February 1972 record of an adult male at the Salton Sea, listed below, is perhaps best treated as Fregata sp. (Patten et al. 2003).