Frigate birds when it rains out at sea

This may seem like a silly question but, if frigate birds can’t get wet then how do they handle the rain when out at sea when they encounter it?

1 Like

is this correct? i thought the situation was more that they couldn’t land in the water because they wouldn’t be able to take off from the water. i’m not sure, but i would assume that they would be fine getting a little wet, as long as they were still in flight. when you’re flying around, i bet you can dry off relatively, quickly, too.

that said, i bet that any sea bird is going to be relatively attuned to the weather. in the daytime, i’m sure they would be able to read the clouds, and even at times they couldn’t rely on sight, i bet they could still sense changing weather conditions as changes in pressure, winds, sounds, and maybe even smells or other things (magnetic fields?). so i bet they could avoid really bad weather or else land on solid ground as necessary.

this might be a good place to start to look for more information: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41481-x.pdf.

3 Likes

Yeah I meant that they can’t get wet because they lack waterproof feathers.

1 Like

right, but main problem with getting wet isn’t simply that they get wet. i think it’s that once they’re wet, they can’t take off, and if they can’t take off from water, they drown. if they’re not in a situation where they can’t take off or if they’re not in a situation where they might drown, then it seems to me like there’s not necessarily any problem with getting wet.

2 Likes

But they clearly survive living in tropical downpours.

Possibly relevant (though more likely just a memory to share). When I was in Tonga, I was told that you see frigatebirds over land only when it’s going to rain. (Obviously, this excludes their nesting ground, but anyway.) One bright, sunny day I saw two frigatebirds flying off the ocean, over the island. “Ha!” I thought. “Frigatebirds don’t forecast rain!” A couple minutes later, a brief shower came in off the ocean, getting me wet, as it seemed to follow the frigatebirds.

6 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.