Parasitic Jaeger

About the Parasitic Jaeger

The parasitic jaeger or arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus), also known as the parasitic skua or arctic jaeger, is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is a migratory species breeding in Northern Fennoscandia, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska, and Siberia and wintering across the southern hemisphere. Kleptoparasitism is a major source of food for this species during migration and winter, and is where the name is derived from.

The parasitic jaeger was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Larus parasiticus. Linnaeus specified the type locality as "within the Tropic of Cancer of Europe, America and Asia" but this is now restricted to the Swedish coastline. The parasitic jaeger is now placed with the six other skuas in the genus Stercorarius that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name Stercorarius is Latin and means "of dung"; the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement. The specific... Wikipedia →