Parasitic Jaeger

Stercorarius parasiticus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Parasitic Jaeger, Stercorarius parasiticus, breeds across the Holarctic low Arctic tundra of North America and the Palearctic, with local populations in high Arctic and subarctic areas from Greenland, Iceland and Scotland through Scandinavia, Svalbard and Russia to Siberia, plus Alaska, the Aleutians and Arctic Canada. Outside the breeding season it moves to productive coastal waters in subtropical and tropical regions, reaching Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, Australia, New Zealand and the coasts of South America. It is a skua, and its name reflects its habit of taking food from other birds.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Stercorariidae — Skuas

Breeding range

North America, Palearctic: Holarctic low Arctic tundra, locally high Arctic and subarctic: w, s Greenland, Iceland, n Scotland, Scandinavian coasts including Baltic Sea, Svalbard (n of Norway), n Russia to ne Siberia and Kamchatka, Aleutian and Bering Sea is., w and sw Alaska, Arctic Canada (except n high Arctic islands) to Baffin I. and ec Canada

Nonbreeding range

to high-productivity subtropical to tropical coastal waters of s continents: coastal w, s, ec Africa, Persian Gulf, e coast Arabian Sea (w India and Sri Lanka), n Indian Ocean, Australia and New Zealand, Peru, Chile and ec Argentina