Skua bird: lifestyle and habitat, photo

The skua is a large bird that belongs to the genus Great Skuas. This bird is also called the Antarctic or subantarctic skua.

Skuas are as familiar to Antarctica as its eternal ice. There are two types of skuas: greater and lesser. In turn, these two genera consist of several species and have a distribution area in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. The south polar skua lives in the icy lands of Antarctica. We will look at this particular type.

South polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki).

Skua bird description

The Great Skua is one of the largest representatives of gull birds, living on the islands of the North Atlantic and on the coasts of Antarctica. Like a large sea gull, it destroys chicks en masse and, not without success, hunts adult eiders, puffins, guillemots and even hares.

In Antarctica, the great skua is an indispensable inhabitant of large colonies of Adélie penguins. Pairs of skuas divide the colony into sections and robber exclusively within the boundaries of their family domains, carrying eggs and chicks of penguins. Some skuas fail to stake out a plot of land in the penguin colony in time, and the losers settle at a distance and are forced to earn their living by fishing.

Skuas are bandits, and that’s all. There are four types of them, and all of them, some more, some less, commit robbery. Eggs and chicks are stolen from neighbors. Penguins are especially affected by great skuas. Great skuas, as tall as a large herring gull, use their strong beaks to kill adult birds that they can overpower. Like frigates, they pirate in the air, forcing lucky fishermen to give up their catch.

Guillemots, gulls and terns are mercilessly pursued by these pirates until they regurgitate their recently swallowed food. Since great skuas sometimes attack birds directly as prey, instead of demanding tribute from them in the form of food, it is easy to understand that the instinct of "giving tribute" has evolved as an easy means of escape. In this respect, it is comparable to the tail-breaking instinct of lizards.

All skuas are migratory birds: they fly to warm seas for the winter and, probably, their northern and southern brothers meet there. Since spring at both poles does not coincide in time, their meetings, of course, are very short.

The bird's body length is 55 cm. This is 10 cm less than that of the great skua, which lives in the Northern Hemisphere and is a regular in the lands adjacent to the Arctic. The wingspan of the south polar skua reaches 135 cm. The beak is strong, with sharp edges, curved at the end.

The color of the feathers can be either dark or almost black with a brownish tint. There are birds whose chest and head are gray, and the upper part of the body is dark brown. Some representatives of this species have a yellow-brown belly. The chicks are usually bluish-gray, rarely having a faint yellowish tint on their backs. Molting occurs in the summer.

Nesting

Great skuas, or skua, nest in and around Antarctica, as far as Tierra del Fuego and New Zealand. This is on one side of the globe, and on the other - in Iceland, Scotland and the nearest islands. There, in the high latitudes of northern Europe, Asia and America, other skuas, three species, nest. Their life depends on lemmings: in years “fruitful” for these rodents, there are a lot of skuas, because, in addition to robbing the nesting sites, they also feed on lemmings.

The skua nests directly on the icy continent or on islands located very nearby. His favorite places: South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands, he also loves the Ross Sea coast where bedrock is exposed. The bird also likes the coast of Queen Maud Land - especially the coast of Princess Ragnhill. He’s not giving up on the Princess Martha coastline either.

The males first flock to the nesting sites, and only then the females arrive. Skua monogamous. Pairs are formed once and forever. Therefore, only young people engage in mating games. It gathers at a distance from the nesting sites and breaks into pairs. Nesting sites are colonies consisting of several dozen birds. Pairs are located at a distance of 20-30 meters from each other. The nest is made directly in the ground, where a small hole is cleared.

Females begin laying eggs at the end of November. This continues throughout December. There are always two eggs, they are born with an interval of two days. The incubation period lasts a month. The female and male take turns incubating the eggs. The first chicks begin to appear in the second ten days of January. They are small fluff balls, the weight of which barely reaches 70 grams.

The younger generation grows up and matures for two months. After this period, the chicks take wing and begin an independent life. Sexual maturity in a skua occurs at the age of 6, sometimes 7 years. The lifespan of this bird is 40 years.

Skua migration

It begins to migrate from colonies in March. This continues throughout April. The bird is flying north. It crosses the equator and finds itself in the summer zone. Here she looks for cooler places, and therefore spends a long six months in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The skua visits Newfoundland, the Kuril Islands, and other areas in these latitudes. Some birds winter closer to their dear Antarctica. They only reach southern Africa, or rather the tropics of Capricorn. In these places they wait for spring to come in the far south. The skua feeds on fish, but does not know how to catch it itself, since it cannot dive. Therefore, he takes fish from other birds or catches those that swim near the surface of the sea.

Photos of skuas

Skua. Photo: Omar Runolfsson

Skuas. Photo: Liam Quinn

Skuas eat a baby penguin. Photo: Liam Quinn

Interesting facts about the bird

Skuas feel great both on land and at sea. While swimming, the bird's body is horizontal to the surface of the water.
Sometimes they attack sheep, penguins and seal pups.
All skuas have different and very interesting voices, but most of the time the birds prefer to be silent, and sing only during the mating season during flight.
When a skua notices danger, it notifies its relatives with short and low sounds, but in the event of its own attack on other birds, on the contrary, it makes loud vibrating sounds. The chicks have a special voice that sounds like a rattling whistle.
On the island of Foula (Scotland) there is a reserve where the short-tailed skua is a protected species.

Species of skuas

Long-tailed skua

It nests throughout the tundra zone, and sometimes in the forest-tundra. In the Arctic tundra zone it is more rare.

The smallest of the skuas is 260-390 g. They can be distinguished from other species of skuas by the length and shape of the central pair of tail feathers. Long-tailed skuas, true to their name, have long and thin feathers. Long-tailed skuas are never solidly dark in color. In young birds of all three species in the first autumn, the middle feathers of the tail are not elongated, the underparts of the body are spotted with brown, so that autumn juveniles are practically impossible to identify from a distance.

The number of long-tailed skuas is very dependent on the abundance of lemmings and tundra voles, since these rodents are the main food of this species of skuas during the nesting period. When there are many rodents, skuas are also numerous. In non-mouse years, Long-tailed Skuas are either rare or do not nest at all. There are seasons when for hundreds and thousands of kilometers of tundra you will not see a single, even stray, long-tailed skua.

However, in addition to rodents, skuas often eat eggs of a variety of birds, flightless chicks, as well as berries, insects and carrion. It happens that after the spring abundance of lemmings, a mass pestilence occurs. Then the skuas, feeding their chicks and therefore tied to a certain area of tundra that they cannot leave, completely switch to robbery. In such times, the bird population of the tundra suffers huge losses, because skuas are “helped” by other tundra predators—owls, buzzards, arctic foxes, stoats, and gulls.

Long-tailed skuas violently drive away all birds of prey, including other skuas, from their nest. They boldly attack a person, swooping down on him from the front in a low-level flight and turning to the side only in close proximity.

True, I do not know of a case where a skua hit a person, as a tern does. During their “psychic attacks,” long-tailed skuas loudly and abruptly shout “kle-kle-kle, kuryau.” The onomatopoeic Nenets name comes from the last sound. Occasionally, Long-tailed Skuas move away from the nest, flapping their wings on the ground, screaming and “crawling” to the side.

Short-tailed Skua

Distributed in the same areas as the long-tailed one, but its numbers are relatively small and stable and the abundance of rodents is almost unclear. The fact is that short-tailed skuas feed only on lemmings and voles. They specialize in catching small birds—passerines, fry up to the size of the tules, turukhtan and plover.

These skuas prefer to hunt birds in the air—they catch them and grab them with their beaks or knock them down with blows of their wings. Often such chases are carried out by two skuas together. They attack the victim from both sides at once, not allowing it to dodge to the side. And since not all birds can compete with skuas in flight speed, a pair of robbers hunts much more successfully than single birds.

The short-tailed skua is slightly larger than the long-tailed skua (380-630 g). The central pair of tail feathers is pointed and relatively short. Sometimes completely dark birds (dark morph) are found.

Due to the fact that the short-tailed skua occupies an intermediate position in size between the other two species, non-specialists often call it the “average skua.” This leads to confusion, since medium is the official name for another skua, the largest of our skuas.

Most often, you can hear from Short-tailed Skuas the very characteristic loud meowing sounds that they make in a variety of situations.

In general terms, the lifestyle of this species is not much different from the lifestyle of the Long-tailed Skua. A characteristic feature of their behavior is that at the nest, short-tailed skuas behave very “undignified”: they rarely pretend to attack, but most often withdraw, feeding hysterically, flapping their wings and “creeping” almost underfoot.

Short-tailed skuas are, as it were, antipodes to the south polar ones, living off our northern shores east of Taimyr; in the fall, along their route, they first move east, circle Chukotka, turn south and along the coast of Kamchatka reach Japan and Taiwan. At the same time, the migration length of one species of skuas varies greatly - from 9-10 thousand to 15-19 thousand kilometers, depending on their favorite habitats.

Skua

The largest of our skuas (560-960 g). Perhaps it should be called the great skua, but that is the name of another species, even larger, that lives in the Atlantic and further south (they fly into our country only occasionally).

The skua inhabits mainly the northern tundra. Here its numbers are very dependent on the number of rodents that form the basis of its diet. In the southern tundra, skuas nest extremely rarely, even during the years of the “mouse scourge.”

Skuas can be distinguished from others by the extended ends of the elongated pair of middle tail feathers, which are turned perpendicular to the plane of the tail.

When you look at the skua from the side, you get the impression that it has a heavy knob on its tail. Skuas are often completely dark

Literature: Ryabitsev V.K. Birds of the tundra, Tambiev A.Kh. Living ways of the planet

Fauna of Antarctica

Fauna of Antarctica
The main representatives of the Antarctic fauna are extrophiles, which have to adapt to extreme dryness and extremely low temperatures. The climatic severity of the main part of the continent contrasts strongly with the softness that characterizes the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands - they have warm temperatures and relatively high humidity. The waters of the Southern Ocean that surround Antarctica are mostly covered with ice. Sea spaces are a more stable environment for life, both in the water column and at the bottom.

The Antarctic fauna is not particularly diverse compared to other continents. Life on land is concentrated mainly in coastal areas. The birds nest in the most climatically favorable parts of the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands. Ocean waters are home to 10 species of cetaceans . Terrestrial vertebrates, although not distinguished by their diversity, take in their quantity. A high density of vertebrate species also lives in the ocean.

At least 235 marine species , ranging in size from whales and birds to small sea snails, sea cucumbers and mud-dwelling worms. Antarctic animals have adapted to reduce heat loss by often having natural warm windbreaks and large layers of fat.

The cold deserts of Antarctica have one of the least diverse faunas in the world. The habitat of terrestrial vertebrates is limited to the subantarctic islands, and even then their numbers are small. Antarctica, including the subantarctic islands, does not have entirely terrestrial mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.

Human activity, however, has introduced non-native species into some areas, such as rats, mice, chickens, rabbits, cats, pigs, sheep, cattle, reindeer and various fish. Some insect species also live here.

Life on the ocean floor, unlike land, is diverse and dense - up to 155,000 different organisms can live on 1 square meter. Underwater climatic conditions do not differ much in different parts of the Southern Ocean, so the same species can be found everywhere. The habitat leads to deep-sea gigantism, so invertebrates here are much larger in size than their relatives in other parts of the world. It is believed that gigantism is manifested due to low water temperatures and its oxygen saturation, combined with low metabolic rates.

Human activities and attempts to settle in Antarctica have a negative effect on the normal functioning of wild life, disrupting its natural processes. The extraction of fish resources threatens and reduces the numbers of many large species that seek food in the sea. Pollution, habitat destruction and climate change pose enormous risks to the Antarctic natural kingdom.

Invertebrates

Most terrestrial invertebrates live on the subantarctic islands. Although the number of species is not very large, the density of representatives of these species is high. In the driest areas, only a couple of species of nematodes can live, of which one is always predatory.

Nematodes

Most invertebrates are able to survive at subzero temperatures, and individuals living on the mainland can remain alive even after freezing.

Ticks and springtails are the most numerous arthropods, although a variety of spiders, beetles and flies can also be found. On one square meter of the subantarctic islands you can find up to 1,000 individuals of mites and springtails. Insects play a vital role in the processing of dead plant material.

On the mainland, it is almost impossible to find macro-arthropods, and micro-arthropods mainly live in areas where there is vegetation and liquid water, which ensures the presence of vertebrates. Belgica antarctica, the wingless midge, is the only insect found on the mainland.

Interesting: What is ecology - meaning, definition and types

Antarctica is also home to large numbers of earthworms, mollusks and micro-invertebrates such as nematodes, tardigrades and rotifers.

Insects

The only insect that can only be found in Antarctica is Belgica antarctica. Belgica antarctica.

Belgica antarctica

Belgica antarctica is an Antarctic midge that ranges in size from 2 to 6 mm. It is endemic to Antarctica. The insect's winglessness is most likely a natural defense, thanks to which the wind does not carry it into the harsher areas of the mainland.

Although temperatures in the midge's habitat can reach -40°C, it cannot survive even -15°C, so they live at a depth of approximately 1 meter, where temperatures are stable throughout the year and range from 0-2°C. Belgica antarctica is able to accumulate trehalose, glucose and erythritol in the body, which allow it to survive low temperatures and also survive after freezing.

Interesting fact : with a size of only 2-6 mm, Belgica antarctica is the largest representative of completely terrestrial life, as well as the only insect on the mainland.

Arthropods

Five species of euphasids live in the waters of the Southern Ocean, the most numerous of which are Antarctic krill. Most of Antarctica's crustaceans use non-seasonal reproduction. Amphipods are found in abundance, feeding on a variety of foods - from algae to other animals.

Order Amphipoda

Crabs have traditionally never been recognized as part of the fauna, although recent research has shown the presence of three species in deep-sea areas. Initially, the study believed that the crabs ended up in these places due to mass migration caused by global warming, and are a serious threat to the local ecosystem. But further research proved that they have always lived in the waters of the Southern Ocean, they were simply overlooked before.

It is interesting to note that most species of arthropods are unable to survive changes in temperature, as they are vulnerable to even slight increases in temperature.

You can often find sea spiders drifting slowly, sometimes reaching sizes of 35 centimeters. It is Antarctic sea spiders that make up approximately 20% of their family in the world.

Antarctic krill

Antarctic krill
Antarctic krill is one of the most abundant species of living creatures living on Earth. The total biological mass of all individuals is about 5,000,000 tons, each measuring up to 6 centimeters and weighing 1 gram. They form entire colonies that extend for many kilometers and color the water red.

Krill usually remain at depth during the day and rise to the surface at night. Many of the region's large animals depend heavily on it. During the winter period, when the krill has run out of food, it can begin to eat its body, driving itself into earlier stages of development (rejuvenating itself), thereby saving its life.

Krill distribution

Glyptonotus antarcticus

Glyptonotus antarcticus
Glyptonotus antarcticus is an extremely large seafloor-dwelling isopod. This is one example of Antarctic gigantism. Adults reach 20 centimeters and weigh 70 grams. They have two pairs of eyes - one pair on the upper part of the body, while the second is on the lower part, which allows the animal to see while swimming (they move upside down). With the exception of the eyes and mouth, the entire body is covered with cuticular growths that prevent parasites from attaching.

Shellfish

The coastal waters of the continent are filled with mollusks, some of which live closer to the bottom, while others live in burrows. There are up to 70 species of cephalopods in the Southern Ocean, the largest of which is the colossal squid, which can grow up to 14 meters in length, making it one of the largest invertebrates on the planet.

Antarctic giant squid

Antarctic giant squid
The Antarctic giant squid, often called “colossal squid” in the literature, is a species of deep-sea squid that is the only member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis. Individuals can grow up to 14 meters and weigh up to 750 kilograms.

This species has been little studied due to the extreme difficulty of any research at great depths. The giant squid was first discovered in 1925, when sailors noticed two huge tentacles in the mouth of a sperm whale.

Habitat of the Antarctic giant squid

Interesting fact : the Antarctic giant squid has the largest eyes on the planet - the eye can reach 40 centimeters in diameter with a pupil of 9 centimeters.

Skua: characteristics of the bird

For the Antarctic region, the skua is as common as permanent ice. This is a large bird that lives in the coastal zone of Antarctica and on the islands closest to it.

In general, there are two genera of skuas: small skuas and great skuas. They, in turn, are divided into species and live in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The south polar skua constantly lives directly in the harsh Antarctic lands - this is what we will talk about.

Appearance

The bird's body length is 55 cm.

This is 10 cm less than that of the great skua, which lives in the Northern Hemisphere and is a regular in the lands adjacent to the Arctic.

The wingspan of the south polar skua reaches 135 cm. The beak is strong, with sharp edges, curved at the end. The color of the feathers can be either dark or almost black with a brownish tint. There are birds whose chest and head are gray, and the upper part of the body is dark brown.

Some representatives of this species have a yellow-brown belly. The chicks are usually bluish-gray, rarely having a faint yellowish tint on their backs. Molting occurs in the summer.

Mammals

Seven species of pinnipeds inhabit Antarctica. The largest species is the elephant seal, which can reach 4 tons, while the smallest are female fur seals, weighing a modest 150 kilograms. The number of pinnipeds living on the islands of the Southern Ocean is truly amazing.

As many as 10 species of cetaceans are often found in the waters:

Blue whale (The average length of an adult male is 25 m, females - 26.2 m. The average body weight of an adult is 100 - 120 tons);
Southern right whale (Average length 20 m, weight 96 tons);
Sei whale (body length 18 m, weight – 80 tons);
Fin whale (Length from 18 to 27 m, weight 40-70 tons);
Sperm whale (Average length 17 m, average weight 35 tons);
Humpback whale (Average length 14 m, weight - 30 tons);
Southern minke whale (Length – 9 m, weight – 7 tons); Killer whale (body length from 8.7 to 10 m, weight up to 8 tons).

Blue whale

Blue (blue) whale
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on the planet. They weigh up to 136 tons! The largest individual reached a crazy 31.7 meters in length!

The blue whale has a narrowed body. The head is flat, U-shaped and has a prominent hump running from the blowhole to the upper lip. The dorsal fin is small, approximately 28 centimeters. When surfacing, the blue whale emerges from the water much larger than other whale species. The fins reach 5 meters in length.

In case of danger they can accelerate to 50 km/h, but the usual speed for movement is 20 km/h. They usually travel at depths of up to 13 meters, and the deepest dive ever recorded was 506 meters. They usually live alone or in pairs. They almost never form groups.

Kerguelen fur seal

Kerguelen fur seal
The Kerguelen fur seal has a relatively long neck and a sharp muzzle, which distinguish it from other representatives of pinnipeds. The ears are not convex and have sharp tips.

The mustache is very long - in males it can reach 50 centimeters. The front flippers reach a third and the building a quarter of the total body length. Adult males are dark brown in color. Females and juveniles tend to be paler—almost gray with a lighter belly.

Males are much larger than females, growing up to 2 m in length and having an average weight of 133 kg. The female reaches 1.4 m with an average weight of 34 kg. Fur seals live 20 years, with the maximum recorded age reaching 24 years.

Leopard seal

Leopard seal
Compared to other seals, the leopard seal has a distinctly long and muscular body shape. This species of seal is known for its massive head and reptile-like jaws, which allow it to be one of the top predators in Antarctica. A notable key feature of leopard seals is their protective fur. The weight of males is up to 300 kilograms, and females - 260-500 kilograms. The body length of males varies between 2.8-3.3 meters, and females 2.9-3.8 meters.

Another notable characteristic of the leopard seal is their short whiskers (vibrissae), which are used to sense their surroundings. Leopard seals have a huge mouth in relation to their body size.

killer whale

The only natural predator above the harbor seal in the food chain is the killer whale. It feeds on a wide range of prey, including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, birds and fish.

Southern elephant seal

Southern elephant seal
The southern elephant seal differs from the northern elephant seal in having a larger body mass and a shorter proboscis. In battle, southern elephant seals appear taller than northern ones due to the fact that they arch their backs more than their counterparts from the opposite pole. Males are usually five to six times heavier than females. On average, female southern elephant seals weigh between 400 and 900 kilograms and measure 2.6 to 3 meters in length, while males can range from 2,200 to 4,000 kilograms and grow up to 4.2 to 5.8 meters in length.

Puppies are born with fur and are completely black. Their “coat” is not suitable for swimming, but it protects them from the cold. The first molt accompanies weaning. After shedding, the coat may turn gray or brown, depending on the thickness and moisture content of the hair.

Crabeater seal

Crabeater Seal
Adult seals (over five years old) grow to an average length of 2.3 meters and a weight of about 200 kilograms. Females are on average 6 centimeters longer and about 8 kilograms heavier, although their weight varies significantly depending on the season; females can lose up to 50% of their weight during lactation, and males lose a significant amount of weight while courting their mating partners and fending off competitors. In summer, males usually weigh 200 kg and females 215 kg.

Fun fact : Crabeater seal pups are about 1.2 meters long and weigh between 20 and 30 kilograms at birth. While nursing, puppies grow at a rate of about 4.2 kilograms per day and reach a weight of 100 kilograms when they are weaned, which is two to three weeks from birth.

They do not eat crabs, despite their name. Their diet consists of 95% Antarctic krill, the rest being squid and fish. Because of their primary diet, crabeater seals do not need to dive deeply, so the average dive that representatives of this species usually undertake is 30 meters and can last 11 minutes. But it is worth noting that there has been one recorded case of a crabeater seal diving to a depth of 430 meters.

Reproduction and lifespan

The bird also likes the coast of Queen Maud Land, especially the coast of Princess Ragnhill. He’s not giving up on the Princess Martha coastline either.

Nesting sites are colonies consisting of several dozen birds. Pairs are located at a distance of 20-30 meters from each other. The nest is made directly in the ground, where a small hole is cleared.

Females begin laying eggs at the end of November.

This continues throughout December. There are always two eggs, they are born with an interval of two days. The incubation period lasts a month. The female and male take turns incubating the eggs.

Mating games

Great skuas can hardly be called sociable. They prefer to hunt either alone or in a group of two or three birds. They gather in flocks reluctantly and only for the sake of creating families.

The male skua is a real gentleman, capable of anything to win the lady of his heart. He dances around her, sticking out his chest, and sings songs to her (very unpleasant to the human ear, by the way). Having conquered the chosen one, the father of the future family begins building a nest. His wife helps him in this matter.

The couple generally does everything together. On the clutch, the partners sit in turns, and they distribute the responsibilities for caring for the hatched chicks among themselves. At first, parents feed their babies insects, later they add small chicks of other birds and small fish to their diet.

All species belonging to the genus Great Skuas always have two eggs in a clutch. The female lays them in December.

Ornithologists know that skuas form mating alliances for life. However, the courtship period only happens once. A year later, having flown to the same place again, the partners easily find each other, but there are no dances and songs among the couples who have already hatched chicks. The birds quickly mate and immediately begin to occupy the nest.

In rare cases, scientists also observe polygynous families of skuas. And two females who have lost males can join forces and organize a common nest with four chicks, which they will care for together.

Skua bird. Skua lifestyle and habitat

The first chicks begin to appear in the second ten days of January. They are small fluff balls, the weight of which barely reaches 70 grams. The younger generation grows up and matures for two months. After this period, the chicks take wing and begin an independent life.

Sexual maturity in a skua occurs at the age of 6, sometimes 7 years. The lifespan of this bird is 40 years.

Behavior and nutrition

After nesting, the skua begins the wintering period. It begins to migrate from colonies in March. This continues throughout April. The bird is flying north. It crosses the equator and finds itself in the summer zone.

Here she looks for cooler places, and therefore spends a long six months in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The skua visits Newfoundland, the Kuril Islands, and other areas in these latitudes.

Some birds winter closer to their dear Antarctica. They only reach southern Africa, or rather the tropics of Capricorn. In these places they wait for spring to come in the far south. The skua feeds on fish, but does not know how to catch it itself, since it cannot dive. Therefore, he takes fish from other birds or catches those that swim near the surface of the sea.

Skuas are close to gulls, but are easily distinguished from them by their dark plumage.

Some species have two color variations: dark, in which the entire bird is dark brown, and light, in which the belly and chest of the bird are white with an ocher tint. Another striking distinctive feature of most skuas is the highly elongated central tail feathers.

Long-tailed skua

The Long-tailed Skua is the smallest of the skuas and the most widely distributed.

In Russia, it nests along the entire Arctic coast and adjacent tundra from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka, Kamchatka and the western coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Some Arctic islands do not have these birds.

The long-tailed skua is approximately the size of a common gull, its weight is 274.5-297.3 g. The female is slightly heavier than the male. The adult bird is easily distinguished from other skuas by its smaller size and very long central tail feathers, reaching 31 cm and protruding far beyond the other tail feathers.

This skua does not have a dark color variation.

Short-tailed Skua

The Short-tailed Skua is the size of a glaucous gull. Its length is about 45 cm, the wingspan is about 105 cm, the weight of males is 429, females - 462 g. This species is dimorphic, some birds are entirely dark, and some are light-bellied. In this case, different color morphs often make up nesting pairs.

The central tail feathers are slightly longer than the other tail feathers.

Skua

The skua is even larger, noticeably larger than the glaucous gull, but significantly smaller than the herring gull.

Its length is about 53 cm, its wingspan is about 135 cm, its weight is 631-687 g. It also has 2 color morphs - dark and light-bellied. The middle pair of tail feathers are significantly elongated, while at the end the feathers are peculiarly inverted, so that on a flying bird they appear greatly expanded.

Magnificent Flyer

Knowing that the great skua is a seabird, many people imagine that it is an excellent diver and swimmer. But it is worth noting that, unlike the vast majority of its neighbors, this bird does not know how to dive at all.

But she is considered one of the best flyers on the planet. Her element is air. Those who had the opportunity to admire the flight of a skua spoke of this phenomenon with delight.

This bird is capable of not only covering significant distances, but also performing incredible maneuvers: turning sharply, rapidly flying upward along an almost vertical trajectory, going into a tailspin and dive, turning over in flight with absolute fearlessness.

When a skua gets tired of flying, it doesn’t even need land to rest. He feels no less comfortable on unsteady water surfaces than on a reliable rocky shore. Having sat down on the water, the skua rests, restoring strength for new flights.

What is its behavior on land? Thin legs only seem fragile. The skua runs well, and at the same time develops good speed.

Skua feeding

The diet of skuas, like almost all gull birds, is quite varied. They eat fish and various invertebrates.

They feed on waste from fishing and hunting and the carcasses of animals thrown up by the sea. Landfills are not visited. Small rodents, especially lemmings, play a large role in the diet of these birds. Sometimes the successful breeding of skuas is associated precisely with the abundance of these rodents.

Skuas swallow lemmings whole. He also arranges food supplies near the nest (up to a dozen dead animals were found in them). All skuas are characterized by kleptoparasitism. They attack auks, terns and gulls in the air, forcing them to abandon prey or regurgitate food they have already swallowed. At the same time, larger species of skuas pirate more often.

The short-tailed skua decides to take prey even from the herring gull, which is significantly larger than it in size and is quite aggressive. And the great skua also attacks gannets, attacking birds if they are weakened or sick.

Among its victims were coots, curlews, and various gulls, including herring gulls.

All skuas destroy bird nests; the short-tailed skuas, for example, can destroy the nests of both eiders and herring gulls. According to my observations, they do not peck the shells of eggs taken from the nest, as crows, magpies and even many seagulls do, but break them into pieces. However, whether all skuas always do this, I cannot say. After all, it’s not often that you find the robber’s paw prints near the shells of eggs destroyed by a predator.

Since skuas live mainly in the tundra, there are no traces of them left on moss and hummocks. It is easier to find them on the sandy shallows of tundra rivers or in damp areas of soil where there is no turf; paw prints are less likely to be found on the sandy seashore.

Sea Robber

Researchers have noted an important behavioral feature of these Antarctic birds. It is not without reason that skuas are dubbed pirate birds.

They are cunning, smart, quick-witted, and have an excellent memory. These qualities help in the fight for survival.

Skuas not only brazenly rob their neighbors, robbing them of food, but often encroach on human prey.

Skuas are omnivorous predators. They happily feast on eggs, small rodents, and chicks of birds living in the neighborhood. Particularly affected by them are seagulls, puffins and penguins, whom skuas mercilessly terrorize, destroying nests and abducting young animals. Scientists have documented several cases of cannibalism.

These birds love fish very much, but they are simply lousy fishermen - they cannot dive. But they can simply rob a more successful neighbor along the coast, robbing him of his catch. Often, a raider takeover occurs right in the air: seeing a bird with prey in its beak, a skua attacks it and grabs the captured fish right on the fly. Strength, determination and massive build - what else is needed for this kind of racket?

Skuas are very attracted to seaports, fish factories, fur farms, and fishing boats. These birds are not too shy and are accustomed to the fact that people do not offend them. They are especially attracted by piles of industrial and farm waste.

In general, ornithologists have long noticed that these smart birds always choose the easiest way to get food. If flying fish live nearby, skuas focus on them, dashingly hunting for those jumping out of the water. In years favorable for rodents, when their populations grow, skuas can generally leave their neighboring birds and ocean inhabitants alone, completely switching to small animals. And if there are food processing plants nearby that can make money, skuas stop hunting and are content with waste.

Who is the skua bird: features and habitat

The back toe is not imprinted on the tracks. The membrane is wide and does not have a concavity in the tracks, like in gulls. The claws protrude noticeably beyond the edge of the webbing, especially on the middle finger, making the print appear somewhat pointed. In general, the tracks of skuas can be distinguished from the tracks of ducks of similar sizes, and from the tracks of gulls.

The size of the paw print of the long-tailed skua is 4x4 cm, somewhat smaller than that of the common gull and teal.

The short-tailed skua leaves a print of 4.4 × 4.4 cm. The step length is 8-12 cm, the width of the track is about 6.8 cm. The width of a pair of prints of a sitting bird is slightly more than 10 cm. The paw print of the skua is about 6 × 6 cm. Tracks Unfortunately, I did not find a great skua. Apparently, they differ little in character from the tracks of other skuas, but in size they should be much larger, approximately like the tracks of a herring gull.

The lower surface of the paws of skuas: long-tailed (a), short-tailed (b) and medium-sized (c)

Eating a variety of foods, skuas are forced to drop pellets, but the researcher rarely comes across them.

The pellets found very often contain crow seeds, and sometimes consist only of them. Apparently, this berry plays a big role in the nutrition of various types of skuas in certain seasons.

(By the way, crowberry fruits are readily eaten not only by birds, but also by many northern animals - minks, martens, arctic foxes, preferring them to blueberries and other berries.) The pellet of the short-tailed skua is 1.7 × 1.1 cm, the average - about 3 × 2, 5 cm.

The droppings of skuas are thicker than those of gulls. In the middle of the white spot, semi-liquid dark “sausages” are visible. In the Short-tailed Skua, a “portion” of droppings spreads out over an area of 4x4 cm.

These birds nest in the tundra. The eggs are laid in a hole among moss or lichens.

The clutch most often contains 2 eggs of a dark olive-brown color with even darker spots. The long-tailed skua's eggs are about 5.6 x 4 cm in size, the short-tailed skua's are 5.8 x 4.1 cm, and the average skua's are 6.4 x 4.5 cm.

As we can see, the differences in size are small, so if there are no owners near the nest, it is quite difficult to find out what species of skuas the found nest belongs to.