Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Stercorariidae > Stercorarius antarcticus > Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi

Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi (Brown Skua)

Synonyms: Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi; Catharacta lonnbergi; Catharacta skua lonnbergi

Wikipedia Abstract

The brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus), also known as the Antarctic skua, subantarctic skua, southern great skua, southern skua, or hākoakoa (Māori), is a large seabird that breeds in the subantarctic and Antarctic zones and moves further north when not breeding. Its taxonomy is highly complex and a matter of dispute, with some splitting it into two or three species: Falkland skua (S. antarcticus), Tristan skua (S. hamiltoni), and subantarctic skua (S. lönnbergi). To further confuse, it hybridizes with both the south polar and Chilean skuas, and the entire group has been considered to be a subspecies of the great skua, a species otherwise restricted to the Northern Hemisphere.
View Wikipedia Record: Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
17
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.59945
EDGE Score: 1.88699

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  4.046 lbs (1.835 kg)
Female Weight [1]  4.266 lbs (1.935 kg)
Male Weight [1]  3.825 lbs (1.735 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  11.5 %
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Endothermic [2]  60 %
Diet - Scavenger [2]  40 %
Forages - Ground [2]  70 %
Forages - Water Surface [2]  30 %

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra Australia, New Zealand Australasia Tundra    

Important Bird Areas

Name Location  IBA Criteria   Website   Climate   Land Use 
Heard and McDonald Islands Heard Island and McDonald Islands (to Australia) A1, A4ii, A4iii  

Prey / Diet

Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass)[3]
Electrona antarctica (Lanternfish)[3]
Polytrichum juniperinum (juniper polytrichum moss)[3]
Protomyctophum choriodon (Lanternfish)[3]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Aptenodytes patagonicus (King Penguin)1
Eudyptes chrysolophus (Macaroni Penguin)1
Pachyptila belcheri (Slender-billed Prion)1
Thalassarche chrysostoma (Grey-headed Albatross)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Corynosoma pseudohamanni[4]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Higgins, PJ and Davies, SJJF (Eds). (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds. Vol. 3, Snipe to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
2Hamish 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
3Diet 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
4Gibson, 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