Paradox on the Wing
Pictured here are the male and female Magnificent Frigate birds, one of the most paradoxical creatures on God’s green earth or more precisely we should say ‘over God’s great blue sea’. Theses birds, with wingspans over six feet, spend their entire lives flying over the ocean, sometimes flying more than a thousand miles for a week without stopping. This is a good thing because it turns out that they can’t swim and if they land on the water, they die, because they can’t take off from a flat surface. In addition, they can’t really walk either, so they pretty much have to stay in the air all the time, except for breeding and laying the one egg that turns into a chick that they have to feed for two years.

You may wonder how they actually eat. Well, they have exceptional vision, so when they see a fish close to the surface of the water, they swoop down low and snag the fish in their long hooked beak while continuing to fly. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? So that’s how they get about sixty percent of their food. The other forty percent they get by harassing other birds until they are so frustrated and distraught that they throw up their food into the water and the Frigates glide down and scoop it up. Pretty clever, huh? And tasty.

I assure you I am not making this up.