High altitude New Zealand record for a long-tailed skua (Stercorarius longidaudus).

Abstract

At 1146 h (NZST) on 5 Nov 2010, an in-bound passenger aircraft to Auckland Airport collided with a bird at an altitude of 4084 m. The aircraft’s position at the time of impact was recorded as 40 NM northeast of Auckland Airport, placing the location above the northern Coromandel Peninsula (Fig. 1; pilot incident report received, but commercial sensitivity prevents publication of precise flight details). Sufficient tissue of the bird was retrieved after the aircraft landed to allow for identification.