The Ascension frigatebird is a large lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage and a deeply forked tail.

The Ascension frigatebird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Pelecanus aquilus.

Male birds are entirely black except for the nape, mantle and scapulars that are covered with elongated lanceolate feathers that have a green metallic sheen.

[7] A program conducted between 2002 and 2004 successfully eliminated all the feral cats[8] and, as a result, two pairs of frigatebirds returned to nest on Ascension Island in 2012.

[10] As with other frigatebirds, its movements outside the breeding season are little known because of identification problems within this difficult group, but it occurs off West Africa.

[13] A census of the Ascension frigatebird population on the islet of Boatswain conducted in 2001–2002 recorded around 6,250 breeding females.

[14] The species is classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as it breeds on just a single tiny island.