From Opus

Alternative name: Long-tailed Skua

Photo by Kudryavtsev
Location: Yamal, Russia, june 06

Stercorarius longicaudus

[edit] Identification

50-55cm (including tail projection of 12-20cm)
Adult

• Smallest and scarecest jaeger
• Gray upperparts
• White breast
• Gray belly
• Black cap (which covers eyes and chin and ends at yellow nape
• Upperwings are dark-edged
• Gray tail with black edges and long, black streamers
• Blue-gray legs with webbed feet
  

Sexes similar
Juvenile is heavily barred and spotted gray with white patches on underwings, white throat, white belly, and dark-tipped gray bill
Dark phase juvenile is darker overall, with gray throat, and without white belly.

[edit] Distribution

Photo by NIGHTJAR1
Spitzbergen, Norway

Breeds in far northern areas from Greenland to Alaska, through most of Asia and northern Europe.

Winters primarily well south of the Equator, off the coasts of Africa, South America and probably Australia and New Zealand.

[edit] Taxonomy

Two subspecies are recognized, longicaudus from the European and western Siberian area and pallescens from northern Americas and eastern Asia (white-headed juveniles are more common in this subspecies).

[edit] Habitat

Nests on Arctic tundra. Spends winters over open ocean mainly near upwelling zones at the edge of the continental shelfs, usually staying offshore, and very rarely found inland. However, in migration, and especially in central and northern Europe, a juvenile skua found inland on a barren field should be considered a Long-tailed Jaeger/Skua until proven otherwise.

[edit] Behaviour

Photo by scottishdude
"Dark phase" Juvenile, photographed at Shelford, Nottingham, UK

[edit] Breeding

Breeding is reliant upon the availability of lemmings, its principal summer food, in almost the entire breeding range.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019

1. What Bird
2. museum.gov.ns.ca
3. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
4. Birdforum thread discussing id of a dark juvenile

• List of references

[edit] External Links