Parasitic Jaeger

Stercorarius parasiticus

Our first record comes from near Lebanon, in 1880. The following, from Smith 1891, is everything we know about that bird:

“As far as I can learn, this is the first record of the occurrence of this bird in the State, or of its appearance so far inland.  The single specimen, on which this record is based, was found, while still living, but completely exhausted, in a field near Lebanon, at the close of a week of very stormy weather, in the latter part of March or the early part of April 1880. Its captor placed it in a cage and offered it corn and bread, which diet soon completed the work of the storm. The bird was then brought to Mr. Gould and is now in his collection. The description given by Dr. Coues. of this bird, in the state just preceding adult plumage, well describes this Warren County specimen.”

The second bird was on Caesar Creek Lake, at various locations north of the State Route 73 bridge, from September 30 through October 10, 2020. Caldwell 2020 briefly mentions this bird, without dates, but eBird has checklists with the dates seen and several photographs.

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