Great Skua Stercorarius skua
Powerfully built, with short, broad wings, the great skua is shaped like an unusually thickset gull, but it has mottled, dark brown plumage that changes only slightly as it matures.
Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)
Scotland
The Great Skua breeds near the sea in northern Scotland, Iceland, Faeroes and in arctic and sub-arctic areas of northern Europe.
Great skua Stercorarius skua
Identification Tips:
Length: 17.5 inches Wingspan: 16 inches
Sexes similar
Large, heavyset, thick-necked with broad-based wings
Thick, heavy bill
Broad white patch at base of primaries
Short broad tail ...
Great Skua
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Great Skua photographed on the Shetland Islands. Notice short tail and broad wings with large white flashes.
Great Skua flying almost directly above. Notice that wings look narrow and pointed.
Great Skua
Catharacta skua (Brunnich)
Status Rare visitant. Although there were several nineteenth-and early twentieth century sightings, the first known specimen, killed in Shelburne County and consigned to a dealer in Boston, ...
The great skua is an aggressive pirate of the seas, deliberately harrassing birds as large as gannets to steal a free meal. It also readily kills and eats smaller birds such as puffins.
Great Skua Stercorarius skua
Diet / Feeding:
Outside the breeding season, skuas take fish, offal (= entrails and internal organs of butchered animals) and carrion.
Great skua (Catharacta skua)
Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
Chilean skua (Catharacta chilensis)
South polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki)
Brown skua (Catharacta lonnbergi)
Southern skua (Catharacta antarctica) ...
The English word "skua" comes from the Faroese name skúgvur [ˈskɪkvʊər] for the Great Skua, with the island of Skúvoy renowned for its colony of that bird. The general Faroese term for skuas is kjógvi [ˈtʃɛkvə].
Puffins are preyed upon by great black-backed gulls and great skuas, herring gulls (which are known to take eggs, chicks and steal fish), rats, cats, dogs, and foxes.
Life History ...
Brown Jaeger, Southern Skua, Southern Jaeger, Antarctic Skua, Antarctic Jaeger, Falkland Skua, Falklands Skua, Falklands Jaeger, Southern Great Jaeger, Southern Great Skua, Subantarctic Jaeger, Subantarctic Skua
Bird Family : ...
Stercorarius skua - Great Skua (photo)
Laridae - Gulls
Larus
Larus crassirostris - Black-tailed Gull
Larus delawarensis - Ring-billed Gull (photo)
Larus glaucescens - Glaucous-winged Gull
Larus heermanni - Heermann's Gull ...
 See also: Skua, Seabird, Jaeger, South Polar Skua, Gull
  
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