Long-tailed Jaeger, Stercorarius longicaudis


Long-tailed Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaegers, magnificently graceful fliers, are almost never seen from land (but see the four pictures at the bottom of this page), and are cherished sightings in fall migration on pelagic trips off California (see the four pictures below these two). They winter far at sea on the temperate Southern Ocean, and, as shown in these two pictures taken near Nome,  they breed on the arctic tundra, where they depend for food on the boom and bust of the breeding cycles of voles and lemmings. These flexible birds don't starve in rodent bust years; they simply abandon nesting for a season and return to their normal but little-known lives on the far-flung oceans.




Long-tailed Jaeger


Long-tailed Jaeger
Above, an adult Long-tailed Jaeger, photographed in migration at the end of July off the California coast, about ten miles south of the Farallon Islands on a pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay. It is still in breeding plumage, though it has lost the long tail streamers seen on the nesting bird at the top of the page. Below, another migrating adult, this one in September, molting to non-breeding plumage. Both images show the solid brown underwing that differentiates the adult Long-tailed Jaeger from the adults of the other two jaeger species and from the South Polar Skua, all of which have prominent white bases to the underwings of their flight feathers. 







































Long-tailed Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger
Above, a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger, dark morph; below, an intermediate morph juvenile, with another ocean bird, a Sabine's Gull, during fall migration. Other Longtail juveniles are light morph; the morphs disappear once the birds attain adult plumage. This takes up to four years in all three jaeger species, but not much is known about the appearance or behavior of immature jaegers between juveniles and adults, because as non-breeders they spend all their time on the ocean, and so are diffucult to study.

Long-tailed Jaeger with Sabine's Gull

Long-tailed Jaeger
Though Long-tailed Jaegers are rarely seen from land, in September 2008 this dark-morph juvenile apparently wandered off its oceanic migratory course into San Francisco Bay, and wound up foraging for several days on one of the salt ponds at the south end of the bay, providing a bonanza for local birders and photographers.


Long-tailed Jaeger



Long-tailed Jaeger



Long-tailed Jaeger