Texas Pelagics

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Parasitic Jaeger

by | Jun 14, 2022

Parasitic Jaeger Stercorarius parasiticus

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status:  Uncommon migrant, rare winter resident and very rare in summer in offshore waters. A rare migrant and very rare winter visitor on the immediate coast. 

Habitat: coastal and offshore waters. May be seen chasing gulls and terns along jetties or near shrimp boats.

Similar Species: Very similar to Pomarine Jaeger. Identification difficult. Parasitic is more slender bodied than Pomarine Jaeger, having a relatively shorter and thinner bill. The tail and underwing coverts on Parasitic Jaeger are duller than the (boldly patterned) Pomarine and Long-tailed Jaegers. This feature creates little contrast between the underwing coverts and the flanks. The central tail feathers on adult birds are pointed, unlike the round and twisted tail feathers of Pomarine Jaeger.

(1) TOS Handbook of Texas Birds; by Mark W. Lockwood and Brush Freeman (2005)
(2) Lower Texas Coast Status from Brad McKinney’s annotated checklist (updated 2009).

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The live Google map above shows the geographic distribution of Parasitic Jaeger found in Offshore Texas from lat-long data I’ve captured from 35 years of Texas Pelagics. 
Click on the box in the upper left of the map to view the map legend.
Click on each sighting symbol and the data label will appear showing the time, date and the number of birds seen.
Click on the symbol on the top right of the map to view a larger map.

The next two map images are copied from eBird.

Map 2) The map below is zoomed into Texas and Louisiana to show individual locations.

Map 3) The bottom map is zoomed out to show the GOM, the northern Caribbean Sea and the adjacent western tropical Atlantic ocean. 

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