biology

Long-tailed jaeger

Long-tailed jaeger is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Long-tailed jaeger rather than just read about it. In short: The long-tailed jaeger or long-tailed skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. Etymology The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter".

Key takeaways

Long-tailed jaeger belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Long-tailed jaeger to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Long-tailed jaeger from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The long-tailed jaeger or long-tailed skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae.

Etymology The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter". The English word "skua" comes from the Faroese name skúgvur [ˈskɪkvʊər] for the great skua, with the island of Skúvoy known for its colony of that bird. The general Faroese term for skuas is kjógvi [ˈtʃɛkvə]. 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 longicaudus is from Latin longus, "long", and cauda, "tail".

Description

This species is unmistakable as an adult, with grey back, dark primary wing feathers without a white "flash", black cap and very long tail. Adults often hover over their breeding territories. Juveniles are much more problematic, and are difficult to separate from parasitic jaeger over the sea. They are slimmer, longer-winged and more tern-like than that species, but show the same wide range of plumage variation. However, they are usually colder toned than Arctic, with greyer shades, rather than brown. This is the smallest of the skua family at 38–58 cm (15–23 in), depending on season and age. However up to 29 cm (11 in) of its length can be made up by the tail which may include the 15 cm (5.9 in) tail streamers of the summer adult. The wingspan of this species ranges from 102 to 117 cm (40 to 46 in) and the body mass is 230–444 g (8.1–15.7 oz).

Feeding When at sea, the long-tailed jaeger will catch fish and other small prey at the surface of the water. During the breeding season (summer in arctic regions, often in mountainous areas) it feeds mainly on lemmings near nesting sites. It will sometimes feed on insects and birds. Like other jaegers and skuas, it is also a kleptoparasite; chasing other seabirds to make them give up their food. This appears to be an important food source during the winter months, spent south of the equator. The bird species most commonly "robbed" this way by the long-tailed jaeger are arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) and sabine's gulls (Larus sabini).

Subspecies Two subspecies are described:

S. l. longicaudus – Vieillot, 1819: nominate, found in northern Scandinavia and Russia. S. l. pallescens – Løppenthin, 1932: found in eastern Siberia, Arctic North America, and Greenland.

Breeding

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 or higher fells 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 ocean and have a harsh kreeah cry. This bird feeds on fish (mainly caught from other seabirds), smaller birds, food scraps, small mammals, fruit and carrion.

References

External links Long-tailed jaeger photos at Oiseaux.net BirdLife species factsheet for Stercorarius longicaudus "Stercorarius longicaudus". Avibase. Explore Species: Long-tailed Jaeger at eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) Long-tailed jaeger photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University) Interactive range map of Stercorarius longicaudus at IUCN Red List Audio recordings of Long-tailed jaeger on Xeno-canto. Stercorarius longicaudus in Field Guide: Birds of the World on Flickr

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Long-tailed jaeger

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Long-tailed jaeger claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Long-tailed jaeger before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Long-tailed jaeger ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Long-tailed jaeger

In research: Long-tailed jaeger appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Long-tailed jaeger in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Long-tailed jaeger is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1819, Birds of the Arctic, Holarctic birds, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Long-tailed jaeger outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Long-tailed jaeger in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Long-tailed jaeger means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Long-tailed jaeger out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Long-tailed jaeger in simple terms?

The long-tailed jaeger or long-tailed skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. Etymology The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning "hunter".

Why does Long-tailed jaeger matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Long-tailed jaeger?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Long-tailed jaeger.