One of my favorite professors in college was an ornithologist, and one of the few reasons I would willingly get up early on the weekend was to go birding with him. He led our class on a trip to Ecuador and the Galápagos islands, where we saw pelicans, oystercatchers, herons, frigatebirds, and three different kinds of boobies, as well as Darwin’s famous finches. Here’s one of my favorite shots of a male great frigatebird in flight.
We use the mnemonic “green is great” to distinguish the great frigatebird, which has greenish feathers, from the magnificent frigatebird, which is more purple-ish. Females have white patches at their throat instead of the males’ red throat pouch.
You can find more taking flight at the original Lens-Artist challenge.
Jedi by Knight 
Excellent! Lucky you, getting to see the Galapagos. Wow!
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It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
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Looking very graceful!
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They are so beautiful to watch!
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Amazing images! And in your favourite image the bird has an almost “Pterodactyl” like appearance the way the wings taper out.
The closest I got birds like these was when a common Seagull decided to take a rest on my balcony rail! The local seabirds fly inland when the weather at sea gets too bad and as I live in a high rise the birds congregate on/around my flat – and that seagull was large, at least 2ft tall when perched on the rail. And it was so funny watching it try to balance with it’s webbed feet!
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Ha, you made a friend!
You may be interested to know that I have also seen the real life porgs–the puffins that live on Skellig Michael–when I visited there 😀 I didn’t get any pictures of them flying though!
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I’m not so sure we were friends, he had a “LEave me alone” stern look in his eye and when you get up that close to a seagull you realise how big that beak is – a serious potential weapon. So I stayed in my flat and left him to the balcony – but he’s welcome back if he wants.
And talking of visits, I mentioned before I am slightly envious (not very Jedi I know) of you as I hope to get to Ahch-to as well. Though I have seen Puffins on the east coast of the UK and they do have a charm about them.
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Lucky you indeed Mei-Mei. Love the way the size of the frigate is illustrated by its comparison to the smaller birds in your first image.
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I hadn’t thought of that! Some of the other birds there are actually frigatebirds, too, just waaaaaaay out over the water–we were near a cliff.
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Ah, you too love the Galapagos, Mei-Mei! Love your frigate birds. They were great flyers to watch, and that red pouch so easily distinguishing them. Great choices!
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Wow… Their wings are so beautiful, and you captured!! Remarkable.
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