This is a Magnificent Frigatebird,
the seabird has a mighty wingspan of about 2.4 meters.
It can stay in the air for several days and nights
and may even sleep on the wing.
But what is most impressive
is the fact that males can inflate their chests
and play drum solos on it.
The result is a crazy, jazzy mix of drums and clicks.
Which leads us to the question:
Which frequency do the females like the most?
Magnificent Frigatebirds are huge,
gangly seabirds found around the warm waters of the southern U.S.
and all the way down to Brazil.
They often nest in large colonies, building nests out of sticks and shrubs.
As true masters of the coastal waters,
Magnificent Frigatebirds soar effortlessly
on their 2.4 metre long wings as they search for fish.
There's just one problem:
the birds can't land on sea.
In fact, strangely for seabirds,
they don't have waterproof feathers.
These airborne giants would actually drown if they ever fell into the sea.
They feed on fish, without wetting their feet
and therefore spend long hours aloft.
They can stay in the air for several days and nights
and may even sleep on the wing.
In this manner, they traverse huge expanses of sea.
Researchers found that the birds remained in the air, day and night,
with the shortest trip lasting eight hours
and the longest almost four days.
They reached altitudes as high as 2300 meters
and came close to the sea only once every seven hours on average
in search of food.
They are amazingly agile fliers,
but for all their elegance, they're not above piracy,
trying to steal an easy meal from each other.
Competition is tough not only for food.
Males also try to steal the hearts of females
in a curious manner.
When it comes to mating
the jet black males perch in groups of up to 30 at a time,
displaying side by side,
each male inflates the skin of his bright red throat pouch,
which swells into an immense elongated heart shape
below his long, slender beat.
Then the male rattles his bill,
drumming it briskly against the huge red balloon of his pouch.
As they drum, the males also wave their heads,
quiver their wings and screech a bit,
and then they really step it up when a female glides overhead.
The females survey the males from above,
picking their partners whilst on the wing.
Ecologists who studied male birds courtship moves
concluded that the sound effects significantly predict mating success.
Males that drum at lower frequencies thanks to larger guler sacs
and in quicker, more constant cadences
appealed more to females,
which may perceive them as more experienced or vigorous,
the study says.
In short: the larger the sac, the more attractive a male seems to be.
If the courtship was successful.
Both parents will spend time in the nest feeding their hatchling.
After 10 weeks, the male departs, leaving the female all the work.
She stays and cares for her chick for another 9 months,
even after it's able to fly.
It's the longest period of parental care of all births.
If the young one is ready, it will follow their parents into the sky,
already perfectly adapted to their aerial way of life.
A mere 32 kilometres from this colony,
there's one island that offers no welcome to the Frigatebirds
and with good reason.
The island is home to around 2000 Golden Lancehead Pit Vipers,
one of the world's most venomous snakes.
Check out our playlist and take a closer look.