Long-tailed Jaeger - BirdForum Opus

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Alternative name: Long-tailed Skua

Photo by Wayne Wood
Location: Andrew Haydon Park, Ottawa, Canada

Stercorarius longicaudus

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.

Distribution

Photo by NIGHTJAR1
Spitzbergen, Norway

Breeds from Alaska to Greenland and south to the northern Ungava Peninsula.

Winters off the coasts of the southern U.S. and South America.

Habitat

Nests on Arctic tundra. Spends winters over open ocean, 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 Skua until proven otherwise.

Behaviour

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

Breeding

Breeding is reliant upon the availability of lemmings and mice, its principal summer food.

Vocalisation

<flashmp3>Stercorarius longicaudus (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

References

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

External Links

Search for photos of Long-tailed Jaeger in the gallery