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Long-tailed Skuas are medium-sized seabirds. Both sexes look alike, but they can both come in different morphologies, pale, intermediate and dark. In addition, they have slightly different breeding and eclipse plumages. During the breeding season dark morphology Long-tailed Skuas have an all dark-brown front, a near-black very-dark brown cap, wings and tail, and a yellowish-brown nape of the neck. In eclipse they show some lighter-grey barring on the front, mostly on the throat, belly and vent. Pale morphology Long-tailed Skuas, in breeding and eclipse plumage, have a light-grey neck and front, down to the undertail coverts, with a mid-greyish chest band. Their cap is very dark grey, while the back is mid-grey, with dark-grey wings and tail feathers. Outside the breeding season they show some grey barring on the sides of the neck, flanks, vent and a clearly visible barred chest band. The intermediate morphology sits in between these two, with more brown to rufous hues in their plumage. All morphologies have silvery-white wing "flashes" (thin longitudinal edges on the primaries) which become less conspicuous in eclipse. At any time of the year, the tail streamers can be either present or missing. The irises of all Long-tailed Skuas are dark. The slender, slightly hooked bill is black. Also the legs and webbed feet are black. Juveniles are greyish, with birds of the dark morphology a bit darker than those of pale morphology. The front is heavily barred, while the neck is streaked and the wings are vermiculated grey with lighter-grey edges. The head still lacks the characteristic dark cap.

Apart from size (which is difficult to judge in the field), the main difference between Long-tailed Skuas and Arctic Skuas is that the former have longer tail streamers than the latter.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Long-tailed Jaeger is available HERE .

Long-tailed Jaegers/Skuas are a strongly migratory pelagic species of which there are two races. They breed in the northern (Arctic) parts of Eurasia and North America, nesting on arctic tundra and islands. Nominate race "longicaudus" breeds in northern Scandinavia and Russia, but not eastern Siberia. Race "pallescens" breeds in eastern Siberia, along the Aleutian islands, to arctic North America and Greenland. Both races spend the northern winters above the Southern Ocean. While race "longicaudus" travels mostly via the Atlantic Ocean, race "pallescens" migrates via the Pacific Ocean (mostly the eastern Pacific, but also down the east Asian coastlines). While migrating, Long-tailed Jaegers/Skuas are sometimes found onshore, even in waters a short distance away from the coastlines.

In Europe Long-tailed Skuas

Race "longicaudus"

Race "pallescens"