Red-footed Booby Sula sula rubripes This locally common booby nests in the trees of the lower shore terraces. A common tropical booby, nesting on the ground amongst pinnacles and inland cliff edges. Chocolate brown plumage with white breast and powder blue beak and feet. This large black bird is widely distributed in the tropics and is easily identified as a frigatebird by the angular wings and deeply forked tail. Females have a white chin and breast and males are all black.
Males display an inflated red throat sac during courting.
Frigatebirds feed by harassing boobies and other seabirds with fish, forcing them to drop their catch. This aggressive behaviour presumably gave rise to the naming of Frigatebirds after the early frigate war ships. Christmas Island Frigatebird Fregata andrewsi The world's rarest frigatebird nesting only on Christmas Island. Slightly larger than the Greater Frigatebird with a length up to 100cm and distinguishable by the white collar of the female and white belly of the male. This medium sized white bird with its black eye marking and elegant long red tail streamers is common along the coastal cliff.