The great frigatebird is a large and lightly built seabird up to 105 cm long with predominantly black plumage.

The great frigatebird was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[2] Gmelin based his description on the "lesser frigate pelican" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds.

[3][4] Latham, in turn, largely based his account on the "man of war bird" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist George Edwards in 1760.

[8] A Late Pleistocene fossilised wing phalanx and proximal end of humerus (indistinguishable from the extant great frigatebird) were recovered from Ulupau Head on Oahu.

This has been hypothesized to enable the birds to use marine thermals created by small differences between tropical air and water temperatures.

Hawaii is the northernmost extent of their range in the Pacific Ocean, with around 10,000 pairs nesting mostly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Birds marked with wing tags on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals were found to regularly travel to Johnston Atoll (873 km), one was reported in Quezon City in the Philippines.

[13] One male great frigatebird relocated from Europa Island in the Mozambique Channel to the Maldives 4400 km away for four months, where it fed on rich fishing grounds.

[15] The great frigatebird forages in pelagic waters within 80 km (50 mi) of the breeding colony or roosting areas.

[17] Great frigatebirds will attempt kleptoparasitism, chasing other nesting seabirds (boobies, tropicbirds and gadfly petrels[17] in particular) in order to make them regurgitate their food.

This behaviour is not thought to play a significant part of the diet of the species, and is instead a supplement to food obtained by hunting.

Groups of males sit in bushes and trees and force air into their sac, causing it to inflate over a period of 20 minutes into a startling red balloon.

Great frigatebird chicks begin calling a few days before hatching and rub their egg tooth against the shell.

Great frigatebirds take many years to reach sexual maturity and only breed once they have acquired the full adult plumage.

[22] Because of the large overall total population and extended range the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.

The Saint Helena population disappeared in ancient times and is only known from subfossil remains, estimated to be a few hundred years old.

Once abundant, it has disappeared as a breeding bird from the main island of Trindade,[24] but small numbers remain elsewhere in this archipelago.