First record of Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel from Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
Authors
D. MATTHIAS DEHLING
Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Victoria, 3800, Australia (matthias.dehling@monash.edu)
Citation
Dehling, D. M. (2025). First record of Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel from Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
Marine Ornithology, 53(2),
277-278.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.53.2.1650
Received 13 March 2025, accepted 18 Mar 2025
Date Published: 2025/10/15
Date Online: 2025/09/21
Key words: Chile, Motu Iti, Motu Nui, Polynesia, range extension, range limit, seabird
Abstract
The Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel is widespread in the western and central tropical Pacific, where it breeds from Raine Island, Australia, in the west to the Tuamotu Archipelago in the east (Marchant & Higgins, 1990). The non-breeding range is larger, extending northwest to Japan and rarely Russia (Sibley & Clapp, 1967) and northeast, rarely, to the northwest Hawaiian Islands, USA (Pratt et al., 1987), and exceptionally as a vagrant to the continental United States (Howell et al., 2014).
References
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