Mazatlán is like Campbell River; a long strip, 21 km. long (the same for both places), along the shore. Campbell River (pop. 31,000) has a seawalk; Mazatlán (pop. 500,000) has the
Malecón, a wide, paved walkway along the full 21 kilometres of the shore.
About halfway down this strip, fisher people have set up tables where they clean and sell fresh fish. Their "customers" include flocks of gulls and pelicans waiting for scraps; Magnificent
Frigatebirds soar overhead or rest on the light posts on the boardwalk.
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| Female frigatebird, about 40 inches long |
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| Soaring. The wingspan reaches up to 8 feet, about the same as a large eagle's. |
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| Watching the fish seller below. |
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| Almost all white belly and head. This one's showing her feet. |
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| The tail has two yellowish stripes, the feet are pinkish blue, the eyes black. |
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| Two frigatebirds and a gull. The bird on the right has a brown head; most of those I saw had white heads. |
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| Frigatebirds spend most of their time in the air; they are remarkably flexible in flight. |
Every frigatebird id site I looked at shows a photo of a male with his bright red inflated
gular sac at the throat. I didn't see any of these, and none shows up in my photos. The explanation may be that the males mate in the fall and winter, stay with their females for a short while, then retire to molt before they return for the next breeding season (and a new female; last year's mate is busy with her chick for another year). So all the birds present on the Malecon this week would be females and immatures.
Females are black, but have a white breast and lower neck sides, a brown band on the wings, and a blue eye-ring that is diagnostic of the female of the species. Immature birds have a white head and underparts. (Wikipedia)
The blue eye-ring is visible on the first and third photos above, and slightly, on the brown-headed bird sharing her perch with a gull and a youngster.
