Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Stercorariidae > Stercorarius > Stercorarius maccormicki

Stercorarius maccormicki (South Polar Skua)

Synonyms: Catharacta maccormicki; Catharacta skua maccormicki; Stercorarius maccormicki maccormicki

Wikipedia Abstract

The south polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki) is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick’s skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. This species and the other large southern hemisphere skuas, together with great skua, are sometimes placed in a separate genus Catharacta.
View Wikipedia Record: Stercorarius maccormicki

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
11
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.46091
EDGE Score: 1.49535

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.976 lbs (1.35 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  89.4 grams
Female Weight [5]  3.133 lbs (1.421 kg)
Male Weight [5]  2.815 lbs (1.277 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [5]  11.3 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Coastal cliffs and islands, Coastal marine, Pelagic
Wintering Geography [2]  Widespread Oceans
Wintering Habitat [2]  Pelagic
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Endothermic [4]  20 %
Diet - Fish [4]  80 %
Forages - Ground [4]  50 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  50 %
Clutch Size [3]  2
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Fledging [1]  50 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  11,000
Incubation [6]  29 days
Mating Display [3]  Ground display
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [8]  23 years 6 months
Migration [7]  Intercontinental
Wing Span [6]  4.428 feet (1.35 m)
Female Maturity [1]  4 years 12 months

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Clipperton Island shrub and grasslands France Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands  
Scotia Sea Islands tundra United Kingdom Antarctic Tundra    

Protected Areas

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Haffneria grandis[14]
Tetrabothrius cylindraceus[14]

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Nathan 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
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
5Higgins, PJ and Davies, SJJF (Eds). (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds. Vol. 3, Snipe to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
6del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
7Myers, 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
8de 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
9Jorrit 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.
10Diet of the south polar skua Catharacta maccormicki and the brown skua C. antarctica lonnbergi at Cierva Point, Antarctic Peninsula, Silvina L. Malzof, Rubén D. Quintana, Polar Biol (2008) 31:827–835
11DENSITIES OF ANTARCTIC SEABIRDS AT SEA AND THE PRESENCE OF THE KRILL EUPHAUSIA SUPERBA, BRYAN S. OBST, The Auk 102: 540-549. July 1985
12The role of notothenioid fish in the food web of the Ross Sea shelf waters: a review, M. La Mesa, J. T. Eastman, M. Vacchi, Polar Biol (2004) 27: 321–338
13Food of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica, Y. Cherel and G. L. Kooyman, Marine Biology (1998) 130: 335-344
14Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
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