Pomarine Jaeger Stercorarius pomarinus

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: In Offshore waters; rare to uncommon summer visitor, uncommon fall migrant and common winter resident.  Rare along the coast in winter.

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

Similar Species: Very similar to Parasitic Jaeger. Identification difficult. Pomarine is heavier bodied and a relatively longer and thicker bill. David Sibley, from The Sibley Guide to Birds, points out that, “the combination of dark head and light uppertail coverts is typical of Pomarine and is never shown by Parasitic. The large bill is sharply bicolored and contrasts with the dark face, often conspicuous at a distance.” Pomarine Jaegers, like the smaller Long-tailed Jaeger, have strongly barred uppertail coverts. The central tail feathers on adult birds are long, rounded and twisted. The tail feathers of adult Parasitic Jaegers are pointed.

© Copyright  Brad McKinney  31 October 31, 2004 (Status updated by Garett Hodne Nov 2014)
(1) TOS Handbook of Texas Birds; by Mark W. Lockwood and Brush Freeman (2005)

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The live Google map above shows the geographic distribution of Pomarine 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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