It was on August 19 that we saw for the first time a sweet little frigate chick, that we named Andrea, who had apparently been "adopted" by a male masked booby. Since then we have had one more good reason to go back to Genovesa (or Tower) Island every Thursday. This is one of the advantages of being a naturalist: one can observe, speculate and wonder and then return to an island to have your questions answered!

Today the mystery of who feeds Andrea was finally unveiled! It is definitely her parents. At 15 hours 55 minutes we saw how, without any problem (after all he has a lot of experience by now), a male frigate bird landed on the ground right in front of Andrea and fed her. Minutes before she had begun to beg for food, recognizing her parent in the blue skies above.

Andrea must be about 3 and a half months old; she already has many black feathers mixed in with some white down. She is not yet ready to fly, but during her short life, her story has gone around the world. She has had a booby for a babysitter, lots of fans on the Polaris and the Internet, and now we have confirmed that she also possesses responsible parents. They have learned to land on the ground, and they probably visit her every couple of days to feed her. The ground is not the best place for a baby frigate to grow up, but it has worked out fine for Andrea. Is this related to the fact that Fabio was around? Let's fantasize and believe it is.