Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Stercorariidae > Stercorarius > Stercorarius skua

Stercorarius skua (Great Skua)

Synonyms: Catharacta skua; Catharacta skua skua; Lestris catarrhactes; Stercorarius skua skua

Wikipedia Abstract

The great skua (Stercorarius skua) is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. The name English and species name "skua" is believed to originate from the Faroese skúvur or skúgvur [ˈskɪkvʊər] and is the only known bird name to originate from the Faroes that has come into regular use elsewhere. In Britain, it is sometimes known by the name bonxie, a Shetland name of Norse origin. The genus name Stercorarius is Latin and means "of dung"; the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement.
View Wikipedia Record: Stercorarius skua

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
12
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.68653
EDGE Score: 1.54469
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  3.137 lbs (1.423 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  111.7 grams
Female Weight [7]  3.106 lbs (1.409 kg)
Male Weight [7]  2.802 lbs (1.271 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [7]  10.9 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Coastal cliffs and islands, Coastal marine, Pelagic
Wintering Geography [2]  Atlantic Ocean
Wintering Habitat [2]  Pelagic
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Endothermic [4]  20 %
Diet - Fish [4]  60 %
Diet - Scavenger [4]  20 %
Forages - Ground [4]  20 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  80 %
Clutch Size [3]  2
Clutches / Year [8]  1
Fledging [5]  44 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  32,000
Incubation [8]  29 days
Mating Display [3]  Ground display
Maximum Longevity [6]  33 years
Migration [9]  Intercontinental
Wing Span [8]  4.461 feet (1.36 m)
Female Maturity [6]  6 years
Male Maturity [6]  6 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Important Bird Areas

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Asio flammeus (Short-eared Owl)1
Falco eleonorae (Eleonora's Falcon)1
Larus marinus (Great Black-backed Gull)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Parapsyllus heardi[12]
Plagiorchis laricola[13]
Tetrabothrius cylindraceus[13]

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 6de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 7Catry, P., RA Phillips, and RW Furness. 1999. Evolution of reversed sexual size dimorphism in skuas and jaegers. Auk 116:158–168.
♦ 8British Trust for Ornithology
♦ 9Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 11Nocturnal foraging by great skuas Stercorarius skua: implications for conservation of storm-petrel populations, Stephen C. Votier, Jonathan E. Crane, Stuart Bearhop, Ana de León, Claire A. McSorley, Eduardo Mínguez, Ian P. Mitchell, Matthew Parsons, Richard A. Phillips, Robert W. Furness, J Ornithol (2005)
♦ 12International Flea Database
♦ 13Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0