The long-tailed skua, also known as the long-tailed jaeger, is the smallest of all skuas, about the size of a black-headed gull. It is the most widely distributed of the northern-breeding species of skua and breeds the furthest north. It spends most of its life at sea, returning only to dry land for breeding which makes it hard to estimate the population. Breeding numbers are dependent on the rodent population and can range anywhere from 150,000 to 5,000,000 million individuals.
Number of birds: Unknown
Family: Skuas
Adult long-tailed skuas in breeding season have brownish-grey upperparts with black flight feathers and tail. The tail has long central rectrices or streamers which often break off in the summer. On the underparts, the breast is white, and the flanks, belly and white are grey. The underwing is dark with white bases to the two innermost primaries.
On the head, the crown is black, and the chin, cheeks, sides of the head, and hindneck are white or pale yellow. The bill is black, the eyes are dark brown, and the legs and webbed feet are pale grey. Males are females are similar, although the female is sometimes darker.
Out of breeding season, long-tailed skuas have bars on the underparts and tail coverts, and there is a dark breast band. The tail streamers are usually missing.
Juveniles are brownish-grey overall with pale barring on the uppertail and undertail coverts. They lack the long tail streamers. The head is pale brown with a darker brown crown.
The darker juveniles have a dark brown head and underparts with pale bars on the underwing and undertail coverts.
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Long-tailed skuas start breeding in June. They form monogamous pair bonds and produce 1 or 2 broods a season, depending on the availability of food. They nest in Arctic regions on dry tundra with rocks and boulders. Both male and females build the nest which is a shallow scrape in the ground.
Long-tailed skuas lay 2 dark smooth, slightly glossy, olive-green, pale green, or tan eggs with dark brown blotches and spots which are incubated by both parents but mainly the female for 23-26 days. They incubate the eggs by holding them on their feet close to their body.
Chicks are precocial and covered in pale grey-brown down and leave the nest 24-48 hours after hatching. They hide in the vegetation to conceal themselves from predators and are feed on insects and berries, and rodents that the adults tear apart for them. They fledge 24-27 days after hatching and reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years.
Long-tailed skuas mainly eat small mammals such as lemmings, and voles, as well as insects, small songbirds, eggs, and berries. In winter it will also eat fish which it preys on by hovering and diving, and will also steal prey from other seabirds.
Long-tailed skuas are scarce passage migrants and can be spotted in the UK in May and June and between August and October. They can be found on the east coast and the Outer Hebrides when onshore winds and bad weather bring them in to land.
The long-tailed skua’s tail, including its streamers can make up half of its total length, with the streamers in breeding season reaching about 30 cm long.
