Ascension Frigatebird
Fregata aquila (Linnaeus, 1758) (0, 2)
Photo © Drew Avery, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
STATUS
South-eastern Atlantic Ocean. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
For 50 years the first record stood as a Magnificent Frigatebird F. magnificens, but on closer inspection in 2003 it was realised that it was an Ascension Frigatebird. Sixty years later another appeared four days earlier than the first but in the same county.
BBRC RECORDS
1.0). 1953 Argyll Loch a' Phuill, Tiree, first-stage juvenile, female, found exhausted, 9th July, died same day, photo, now at National Museums of Scotland (NMSZ 1953.16).
(A. C. Stephen, Scottish Naturalist 65: 193-194; Eds., British Birds 47: 58-59; E. V. Baxter, Scottish Naturalist 67: 99; BOURC (1956), Ibis 98: 154; J. Morton Boyd, British Birds 51: 46; Thom, 1986; M. J. Rogers and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 86: 454; BOURC (1999), Ibis 141: 176; G. Walbridge, B. Small & R. Y. McGowan, British Birds 96: 58-73, plates 34, 42, 43; B. Zonfrillo, R. Y. McGowan & R. L. Palmar, British Birds 96: 454; M. J. Rogers and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 96: 549; R. Y. McGowan, Birding Scotland 6 (3): 103-106, plates 89-90; BOURC (2004), Ibis 146: 192-195; Forrester & Andrews et al., 2007: photo).
2). 2013 Argyll Bowmore, Islay, juvenile, 5th July, photo.
(J. M. Dickson, Scottish Birds 33: 352-355, plates 317-319 & 321; N. A. J. Hudson and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 107: 592, plates 251 & 284).
