Pomarine Jaeger

Overview
Pomarine Jaeger Dark Morph: Large jaeger, dark brown except for white patches near underwing tips and sides of undertail. Light morph has white neck, pale yellow collar, white lower breast, mottled breast band, sides. Thick bill, pale at base. Tail has two long central feathers twisted vertically.

Range and Habitat
Pomarine Jaeger Dark Morph: Circumpolar species of the Arctic tundra. Winters mostly offshore in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, near the West Indies; also off coasts of Africa, southeast Australia, and Central and South America; sometimes found near Hawaii.

INTERESTING FACTS
The Pomarine jaeger was first described in 1815 by Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch aristocrat and zoologist. It will fly at the head of a human or other intruder approaching its nest. Successful reproduction occurs only in one of every three or four years in a typical lemming cycle, and only in areas where lemming populations reach high concentrations. A group of skuas are collectively known as a "shishkab" of skuas.