Dear Birders, I went down to the north shore of Boulder Reservoir from around 5:15-6 pm this evening. For most of the time, the jaeger was sitting on the water just beyond the buoys. The bird wasn't all that big, noticeably smaller than a relatively adjacent Ring-billed Gull. The overall color tone was cold, especially noticeable on the head and neck. In good low afternoon light, there was sometimes a hint of brown in the head/neck, but it wasn't as apparent as one would expect on a young Parasitic. It also lacked a pale crescent above the bill. The bill was slight and tipped with black, and I did not rely heavily upon the gray/dark ratio or bill shape at such a distance. There are better field marks to focus on. The back, scapulars, and wing coverts were all dark with pale yellowish tips, giving the bird a well-patterned look. The primaries were solid black with no pale tips. The under tail coverts were pale, almost white, with black bars. The wings were very long, extending well past the tip of the tail while sitting on the water. While floating, the caboose rode high in the water, and combined with the small size it gave the bird a very dainty and Sabine's Gull-esque feel. Eventually, the bird took off and made a few wide circles fairly close to the shore. In flight, one very bright white primary shaft was apparent, with a second fainter shaft being just visible. The rest of the flight feathers were distinctly dark from above. The auxilaries below were patterned with black-and-white, with no noticeable color. The belly was the palest part of the undercarriage, with the head and chest being darker and the barred under tail coverts contrasting as well. All of these details make me settle upon a juvenile intermediate-morph LONG-TAILED JAEGER as the likely identification. No photos to corroborate, but maybe others obtained some. Thanks, Christian NunesBoulder, CO CC: [email protected] From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [cobirds] Jaeger sp. , Boulder Res. , Boulder Co. Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 18:00:32 -0600 To: [email protected]
At Boulder Res right now and Jaeger took flight towards SE corner. Looks to be a Juv Pomeraine Jaeger based on rounded tail, bulky bill, and noticeable hook to bill but didn't see it in flight long enough to see underwing/upperwing clearly. Would appreciate clarification from anyone else who sees it. Regards, Mark Minner-LeeSuperior, CO Sent from my iPhone On Sep 16, 2014, at 3:24 PM, Todd Deininger <[email protected]> wrote: NE corner, found by David Dowell -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CABv4Dr9GMCAiC2C6Ode6pPngn8C_ZxP_oZugOm5P880aknQtFQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/2DE2C10F-0E3B-40D7-8193-EF1FD927AF7E%40gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/COL129-W27F39BB0FC8D3D891ED93CBCB60%40phx.gbl. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
