How do frigate birds obtain food by piracy?

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Three eastern white pelicans with black-tipped wings take off from a muddy shoreline, wings outstretched, with blurred green vegetation in the background. — Pelecaniform European white pelicans (*Pelecanus onocrotalus*) in flight.

Frigate birds obtain food through a specialized feeding strategy known as kleptoparasitism, or piracy.12

These birds are highly skilled aerialists that use their speed and agility to harry, chase, and attack other seabirds until the targets are forced to drop or disgorge their catch. Once the prey is released, the frigate bird skillfully catches the food in midair or retrieves it from the water's surface before it sinks. In addition to this behavior, they may hover above seabird nesting colonies to steal food from parent birds returning to their nests.3124

While piracy is a well-known feeding habit, frigate birds are also capable of procuring their own food by pursuing flying fish as they leap through the air and by snatching prey directly from the surface of the water without alighting.1