discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 57FRIGATES O
Lying just south of the border
with Ecuador, La Isla de Los
Pájaros lies in the Tumbes
region on Peru’s northern coast.
Where is La Isla
de Los Pájaros?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juan Tió Idrogo is a Peruvian wildlife
conservation photographer and a
fisheries engineer, specialising
in the environmental
management of coastal marine
areas. He spent three years
photographing the complete
life-cycle of the frigatebirds.It has an equatorial, tropical location; a
section of the Andes mountains, which
host a variety of microclimates at various
elevations; and its waters are blasted by the
chilly Humboldt Current, which moves north
from Antarctica’s Southern Ocean along the
Pacific coasts of South America. The result
is a rich tapestry of habitats, each home to
hundreds of species of birds – many of them
endemic – alongside a host of other wildlife.
Peru is a birder’s paradise, boasting more
than 120 species of hummingbird, 17 cuckoos
and 39 types of woodpecker, as well as an
array of penguins, boobies, hawks, trogons
and guans, not forgetting the national bird:
the dazzling cock-of-the-rock.
But for me, there is one Peruvian species
that stands beak-and-feather above the rest:
the magnificent frigatebird. Generally, these
large, predatory seabirds are found in the
warm waters of the tropics. Yet the waters
off Peru are cold: only in the Tumbes region
on the north coast are temperatures warmer,
but only slightly. Essentially, the frigate is a
tropical bird that has taken to cold water.
The Tumbes stretch of coastline is close
to the Ecuadorian border and swathed in
mangroves, and amid the tangled vegetation
is a small floating island of two hectares.
Known as La Isla de Los Pájaros (the Island
of Birds), it’s home to a single, permanent
colony of 3,600 frigatebirds – the only one
of its kind in Peru.La Isla de Los Pájaros lies two kilometres
west of the bustling port of Puerto Pizarro,
and is subject to the ebb and flow of the
daily tides. The frigates are thought to have
taken up residency on the island as it offers
a short commute to the coast and to the easy
pickings on offer from the local fishing boats.
Access to this food source could be one
explanation for the colony’s reproductive
success.I
first set eyes on these frigates in
the summer of 2009. Seeing these
colourful birds, watching their
exuberant displays and realising
that they spent their entire lives on
this one single, floating mangrove island
had me hooked. I knew that I needed to
photograph them – not only to document
their flamboyant behaviour, but also to raise
awareness of the need to protect them. I
spent three consecutive summers lost among
the noise and commotion of thousands ofEssentially, the frigate is a
tropical bird that has taken
to cold water
The discarded catch
of the Puerto Pizarro
fishermen provides
an easy source of
food for frigates