The fastest predatory swooping bird on Earth

The fastest predatory swooping bird on Earth is the frigatebird. Frigatebird is a general name for five species of large tropical seabirds in the family Pelicanidae. They have a throat pouch in their throat to temporarily store the fish they prey on. He has well-developed chest muscles and is good at flying. He is known as the "Flying Champion" and is an extremely outstanding pilot. Although he weighs only about 1,500 grams, his wingspan can reach 2 meters. It flies like lightning and can fly at a speed of up to 418 kilometers per hour when hunting. It is the fastest flying bird in the world. It can not only fly to a height of about 1,200 meters, but also flip flexibly in the air. It can also fly non-stop to places more than 1,600 kilometers away from its nest, with the longest distance reaching about 4,000 kilometers. Frigatebirds are also fearless in the face of strong winds up to level 12 and can fly and land safely from the air.

The origin of the name frigatebirds starts with their living habits. Frigatebirds have a pair of long, pointed wings and are very good at flying. When its wings are spread out, the distance between the two wingtips can reach 2.3 meters. During the day, frigatebirds are almost always soaring in the sky. They can flip and hover at high altitudes, and they can also dive in a straight line at high speeds. Their superb flying skills are truly amazing. It is with this unique skill that the warbirds attack other seabirds holding fish in their mouths in the air. They often rush toward their targets with such ferocity that the attackers become so frightened that they drop the fish in their mouths and flee in panic. At this time, the frigatebird immediately swooped down, grabbed the falling fish in its mouth, and immediately swallowed it. Because of this seabird's predatory habits, early naturalists named it frigatebird. Here, a frigate is a cannon-mounted sailing ship used by pirates in the Middle Ages. In modern English, frigate means frigate. Later, people simply called them man-of-war, which means warship. That's how the name of the frigate bird was called.

Frigatebirds also obtain food by harassing other seabirds returning with prey. By disturbing other birds in flight, they often get food dropped from the mouths of other seabirds. If it sees its neighbor red-footed boobies returning from fishing, it will launch a sudden air attack on them, forcing the red-footed boobies to give up the fish and shrimp in their mouths, and then dive quickly to grab the fallen fish and shrimp and take them for themselves. Because of the frigate bird's "food-grabbing" behavior, people derogatorily call it "robber bird".

Although frigatebirds are very good at flying. The wings are large, but their bodies are smaller and their legs are short and thin. Frigatebird feathers have no oil and cannot touch water, otherwise they will drown. Therefore, they catch food by themselves. They can only catch a small amount of fish close to the water. Most of them rely on their superb flying skills to intercept other birds from the air. Caught fish.

Therefore, in the long process of evolution, frigatebirds became pirates among birds. They relied on plundering food to make up for their shortcomings in feeding ability. Frigatebirds must return to land or islands to roost every night.

Frigatebirds like to live in groups. When perching, large groups of frigatebirds huddle together, making them appear very crowded. Moreover, other seabirds, such as boobies and seagulls, often gather to roost around frigatebirds. These seabirds, which are bullied and plundered by frigatebirds during the day, sleep with frigatebirds at night. Sometimes things in nature are simply incredible.

animal tags： Pelicanformes