ABSTRACT
Family Fregatidae contains five species, with representatives throughout the tropical and subtropical oceans. Four are known in Afrotropical waters, and two occur as non-breeding visitors along Kenya's coast. Greater frigatebird breeds on Indian Ocean islands and occurs off the E seaboard of Africa from Somalia south (S) to the Cape, though it is rare inshore. It is also found in the Pacific and the SW Atlantic. Sight records of frigatebirds have fallen into three categories. Close views of individuals that are entirely dark indicate adults of either this species, the Magnificent Frigatebird F. magnificens or the Ascension Frigatebird F. aquila but, since the first two are unknown in the Indian Ocean, the Greater is by far the most probable. Lesser frigatebird breeds on Indian Ocean islands, and disperses north to the coasts of India and Somalia. There is a single record from Kenya, and two from Tanzania.
