Long-tailed Skua
The Long-tailed Skua, known as the Long-tailed Jaeger in the Americas, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is the smallest of the skua family at 15 to 23 inches in length depending on the season and age. However, up to 11 inches of its length can be made up of the tail which may include 6 inch long tail streamers in the summer adult.
The adult Long-tailed Skua is unmistakable with its grey back, dark primary wing feathers without a white "flash", black cap and very long tail. Adults often hover over their breeding territories. Juveniles are much more problematic to identify and are difficult to separate from the Arctic Skua over the sea. It is slimmer, longer-winged and more tern-like than the Arctic Skua but shows the same wide range of plumage variation. However, it is usually colder toned than the Arctic Skua with greyer shades rather than brown.
The Long-tailed Skua breeds in the high Arctic of Eurasia and north America with major populations in Russia, Alaska and Canada and smaller populations around the rest of the Arctic. It nests on dry tundra or higher fells where they can be heard making yelping and rattling sounds. Outside of the breeding season they spend most of their time over open ocean and have a harsher cry. It is a migrant species and winters in the south Atlantic and Pacific.
The Long-tailed Skua feeds on fish (mainly caught from other seabirds), small birds, small mammals, fruit, food scraps and carrion. On migration, it is more likely to catch its own food and less likely to steal from gulls and terns than the larger skua species.
Date: 29th June 2019
Location: Jarfjordfjellet, Troms og Finnmark, Norway
The adult Long-tailed Skua is unmistakable with its grey back, dark primary wing feathers without a white "flash", black cap and very long tail. Adults often hover over their breeding territories. Juveniles are much more problematic to identify and are difficult to separate from the Arctic Skua over the sea. It is slimmer, longer-winged and more tern-like than the Arctic Skua but shows the same wide range of plumage variation. However, it is usually colder toned than the Arctic Skua with greyer shades rather than brown.
The Long-tailed Skua breeds in the high Arctic of Eurasia and north America with major populations in Russia, Alaska and Canada and smaller populations around the rest of the Arctic. It nests on dry tundra or higher fells where they can be heard making yelping and rattling sounds. Outside of the breeding season they spend most of their time over open ocean and have a harsher cry. It is a migrant species and winters in the south Atlantic and Pacific.
The Long-tailed Skua feeds on fish (mainly caught from other seabirds), small birds, small mammals, fruit, food scraps and carrion. On migration, it is more likely to catch its own food and less likely to steal from gulls and terns than the larger skua species.
Date: 29th June 2019
Location: Jarfjordfjellet, Troms og Finnmark, Norway
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Also in: North Norway
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