Genovesa Island

So ugly, and so cute! So threatening and so helpless! So big and so young! It is a frigate chick, five or six month old at the most. It is an immature frigate which needs its parents to survive. They’ll bring it food; they’ll bring it news about the world. It is completely dependent on its parents, both of them, because male and female take turns in the rearing and feeding of their young ones.

This baby hasn’t moved from its nest since the moment it hatched. It has been right on that same place and it won’t be able to fly in at least six more months. Frigates are pretty much like human beings. Parents take care of their young ones for a long time. With humans it is…almost forever, a never ending job; for frigates it is a two-year compromise. This strategy in known as altricial.

We saw hundreds of frigates today, many of their helpless babies were very happy to see us along the trail. After all, we are the only entertainment those little ones have for the long and boring time they have to just sit on their nests while they wait to grow up.