Long-tailed Jaeger

Stercorarius longicaudus

Family: Jaegers and Skuas · Status: Vagrant · Size: 47–67.5 cm · Conservation: Least Concern

Range

Breeds across the Arctic, in tundras across North America including Greenland, Scandinavia, and across Russia. Winters in southern temperate and subantarctic oceans, passing tropical seas on migration.

Identification

Also known as the Long-tailed Skua, this is the smallest and most slender of the three Jaegers. Occurs in light and dark colour morphs as juveniles, although unlike the other two Jaegers no adult dark morphs have been definitively identified. On the breeding plumage of the light morph, the face and cap are black, upperparts are dark brown/grey except for a pale yellow band wrapping around the nape to the sides of head. Black flight feathers and a black trailing edge on the secondaries also contrast with the dark brown/grey upperside. On the underside, the breast is white, fading into dark grey on the from the belly and the underwings onwards. Breeding adults have massively elongated central tail feathers, much longer than the other two Jaegers. Non-breeding adults and immatures appear heavily scaled on the wings, with a variable amount of mottling or dark colouration over the rest of the body. Only the outer 2 primaries show prominently white shafts, fewer than Parasitic and Pomarine Jaeger.

Habitat

Open seas

Behaviour

Kleptoparasitises terns and other seabirds, but less than the other two Jaegers.