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Great Skua

Great Skua

Stercorarius skua

Identify the Great Skua by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Great Skua is a burly, Herring Gull-sized seabird notorious for its piratical habits. It breeds on windswept moorland and rocky islands in the north-east Atlantic and spends the winter roaming the Atlantic, reaching as far as North American and West African waters. Dark brown with bold white wing flashes and a bull-chested look, it rules seabird colonies through intimidation and force.

Did you know?

  • The word “skua” comes from Faroese.
  • It has been seen hunting storm petrels at night on their breeding islands.

About the species

Identification

A dark brown, powerfully built, gull-like skua with a short tail and broad wings; a clear white patch shows on the outer wing in flight. Females are often larger than males. It differs from other skuas in its heavy build and uniformly dark, mottled plumage.

Family

Stercorariidae

Size

Very large (swan)

Colours

brown, black, white

About the habitat

Breeds on coastal moorland and rocky islands, nesting on open ground; outside the breeding season over the open Atlantic.

Diet

Mainly fish, caught at the surface or stolen from other seabirds, and fishing discards; also seabirds and their eggs, carrion, berries and small mammals.

Behaviour

An aggressive pirate that chases gulls, terns and even gannets until they drop their catch, and can kill seabirds up to the size of a Herring Gull. At the nest it defends fiercely, repeatedly dive-bombing intruders, including people. It flies powerfully, though less agilely than the smaller skuas. It has even been seen hunting storm petrels at night.

Sources

Photo: Ómar Runólfsson, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stercorarius skua -Iceland-8.jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_skua

See also