Long-tailed Jaeger

1/400s at f5.6, ISO:800, Canon Mark IV 1D w/800mm

The Long-tailed Jaeger in North America is a seabird. This species breeds in the high Arctic of Eurasia and North America, with major populations in Russia, Alaska and Canada and smaller populations around the rest of the Arctic. It is a migrant, wintering in the south Atlantic and Pacific. Passage juvenile birds sometimes hunt small prey in ploughed fields or golf courses, and are typically quite fearless of humans. They nest on dry tundra laying two spotted olive-brown eggs. On the breeding grounds they can be heard making yelping and rattling sounds. Outside of the breeding season they spend most of their time over Open Oceans and have a harsh kreeah cry. This bird feeds on fish (mainly caught from other seabirds), small birds, scraps, small mammals and carrion. On migration, Long-tailed Jaegers are more likely to catch their own food, and less likely to steal from gulls and terns than larger species.
Cambridge Bay, Canada