LIS LONG-TAILED JAEGER - Sep 6, 2026

juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger

Long Island Sound Pelagic Birding...it's not always an oxymoron!

Outside of tropical cyclone landfall, I'd say there are three times of year during which the thought of birding the protected waters of Long Island Sound actually packs some juice. One such time is during early winter, like mid-Dec into January, when the southbound push of alcids results in a not-ridiculously-small chance of uncovering a Dovekie or Common Murre or the like. Another period arrives mid-late summer, when shearwaters sometimes settle into the far eastern Sound. It doesn't happen every year, but it has become more frequent over the past decade. 

And finally, we have a very narrow window for two rare species. During the last week of August and the first couple weeks of September, Long-tailed Jaegers and Sabine's Gull migrate overland from their arctic breeding grounds to the open ocean, where they will spend the next several months. Every now and then, an individual will find itself in Long Island Sound. Both of these species are quite rare in CT. Entering this year, we had eight accepted records of Long-tailed Jaeger and four of Sabine's Gull. We have inland records of both species, including the first state records of each, which reflects their migration route. But most records come from the salt, either by boat or from land.

It is nearly always the hatch year birds that are found. The adults seem to be much more proficient at reaching the open ocean.

Interestingly, though the sample size is small, if you include records from the New York side of the Sound, there is actually a concentration of records in the western half of the Sound. As far as seabirds go, historically the eastern Sound, which is the part that leads to more open ocean, has been far superior for seabirds, as one might expect. This is where most of the shearwaters, storm-petrels, and rare alcids have been found. And it receives somewhat regular birder coverage thanks to the ferry that runs from New London (CT) to Orient Point (NY). Yet there are zero (!) records of either species from the ferry or the eastern Sound as a whole. Kinda crazy!

So why the western concentration of Long-tails and Sabine's? I think the answer is in large part due to their overland migration route combined with the layout of the Sound. So, let's say a southbound bird crosses over Connecticut and hits Long Island Sound. The goal from here is to reach open ocean. So now what? I suspect that birds in the eastern end of the Sound can actually see or otherwise sense that it is open to the east, which makes for a quick and easy decision to depart in that direction. True ocean achieved!

But for birds that arrive in the western end, the answer might not be so obvious. The geography of the eastern Sound and its route to the ocean may not be obvious to these birds. If that's the case, they might not know where to go. Some/many presumably fly east and escape quickly. But others might meander a bit or even turn west, in which case they'll just reach a dead end and have to turn around. So that narrow and essentially closed western section probably traps a few birds, at least temporarily, resulting in the cluster of records. And I think the cluster is real, not simply coincidence due to a small sample. Of the combined 17 Long Island Sound records of both species that I'm aware of, only one has occurred east of New Haven.

Long Island Sound and adjacent waters

We are now squarely inside the window for these two species. With that in mind, I've spent some time checking CT waters for both. The first dedicated check with friends about a week prior resulted in a nice dark adult PARASITIC JAEGER and a distant jaeger sp. that went unidentified.

dark morph adult Parasitic Jaeger

I ventured solo on Sunday for another run out of New Haven. The forecast was suspect, and it was gnarly out there. Not so gnarly that it was unsafe, but I'd describe it as uncomfortable. An east wind against the tide was to blame. I ran offshore New Haven, then west along the state line to the Bridgeport area. By that point I'd had enough of the rough seas and angled back near shore, then looped back to New Haven. It was dead out there. No birds, no fish. 

News that Julian Hough had found a Black-legged Kittiwake chillin' in New Haven Harbor re-energized my efforts. If there was a kittiwake in the harbor, there should be something even rarer on the open Sound in this weather. I decided to continue a bit further east as the wind and current turned more favorable. Just offshore from New Haven, I finally encountered some feeding gulls and terns. It seemed like a good place to sit for a while... see what might drop in.

Not long after beginning to sort through the flocks I heard the whine of a distressed young Laughing Gull from behind me, and I turned to see a dark jaeger in half-assed pursuit of the gull. The slim build and buoyant flight of the jaeger immediately recalled LONG-TAILED, and that's what I figured it was. But if you've been seabirding you probably have PTSD from that time a jaeger appeared and without warning vanished before you got definitive views or photos of any kind. So I reached past the bins and right for the camera, firing off some shots as the bird continued slowly south where it landed on the water with some gulls.

As I was repositioning the boat to catch up to the jaeger, it again took flight and messed with a couple of Laughers before the gulls became annoyed, turned the tables, and tried to drive the jaeger away. The jaeger seemed not terribly bothered and slowly meandered further south, where it landed again. This time I watched the bird with bins and cemented ID as juvenile Long-tailed. I again reset the boat, this time drifting a bit closer and getting some nice photos as it sat on the water and took flight again southward.

Having nice views and photos of plumage features was essential to really pin down the ID, but to be honest what really gave away this bird's identity was the GISS. As noted above, relative to the Laughing Gulls it appeared graceful and dainty. Almost like that of a large tern, but even more buoyant. And the attitude with which it "chased" the gulls was borderline friendly. When Parasitics go after something, the hunt is fierce and aggressive; it is full of purpose. The vibe was much more Long-tailed like right off the bat.

This encounter with a Long-tailed Jaeger in Connecticut was quite a bit different than my first, some fifteen years ago. Hurricane Irene delivered one as I was sound-watching from land on the heels of the storm. I was then the fresh owner of my very first dSLR and was too afraid to ruin my spiffy new camera with rain and salt spray, so I was not able to document any of the rarities that flew past me that memorable morning, including the jaeger. So it felt good to document this one so well.

Also rather satisfying was this bird's occurrence right near home port. It was a bit of deja vu, as five years ago I had a juvenile Sabine's Gull in the same area, also while hanging out with feeding gull & tern flocks about 3 miles offshore. I apparently haven't been giving these local flocks enough respect, and will start to pay more attention for rarities, even when I'm focused on the fishing.

Perhaps later this autumn I will make an effort to find a Pomarine Jaeger out there, which is a species that has eluded me in the state. Well, I have seen one before quite poorly that was identified by others who saw it better...and saw another near-certain Pom after Hurricane Sandy in 2012...but I did not count either of those on my personal list. Poms make the same sort of overland migration that Long-tails and Parasitics make, but they do it later in autumn. Pomarine Jaeger is the rarest of the three jaegers in CT. We only have four accepted records, and as far as I know, none have been documented with photo or specimen. Nailing the first fully documented record would make for a worthwhile goal.

 - Nick