DISTRIBUTION AND DISPERSAL OF CENTRAL PACIFIC LESSER FRIGATEBIRDS ‘FREGATA ARZEL*

During the period from March 1963 to July 1965 the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program made an extensive study of the islands of the Central Pacific in the area bounded by 10°N.,180° W., 10° S. and 150° W. In the course of this study much new information was obtained on the distribution and dispersal of the Lesser Frigatebird. We have found that Lesser Frigatebirds are an abundant and widely distributed breeding bird in the Central Pacific, although only once previously reported breeding. Most of the young Lesser Frigatebirds from the Phoenix Islands travel to the Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, or the Philippines. A few travel farther north to the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, Taiwan, and Siberia, and a few also move to areas southwest and southeast of the Phoenix Islands. Most of the dispersal to these latter areas apparently occurs earlier than the dispersal to the Solomons. The dispersal pattern may be dependent in part on the surface wind pattern.