Hi guys and Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there. Last week the sneaky spider known as Philoponella vicina graced this blog. This week we have piratical issue to round out the last few days of November. Hope you guys enjoy.

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Issue #97 – Great Skua

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Chordata

Class – Aves

Order – Charadriiformes

Family – Stercoraiidae

Genus – Stercorarius

Species – skua

Related Species – The Great Skua is one of seven species of skua in the genus Stercorarius (1)

Range

The Brigand King

The Great Skua is the largest of the four northern species of skua, with a body length of 55cm, a wingspan of 130cm and a weight of 1.2kg, although larger specimens have been accurately recorded. Great Skuas have brown and white streaked feathers with a cap of black feathers on its skull. Skuas can be identified from closely related gulls and auks by the talons on their feet, and the Great Skua can be identified from the smaller species of skua, commonly called Jaegers, by their shortened tail feathers, not to mention their larger size.

All Skuas are opportunistic hunters, mainly feeding off fish, carrion and offal they find on the shoreline. While they are more than capable of catching their own prey, the Great Skua primarily acts as a kleptoparasite, particularly in the breeding season where they mob other seabirds. The Skuas tactics vary, but usually an ambush from behind is preferred, with the skua grabbing their target by the wing and forcing them to stall and run the risk of drowning in the ocean below unless they drop their prey. In addition to mobbing birds for food, the Great Skua also steals eggs from other nesting birds and happily predates on their smaller neighbours.

Great Skuas breed in summer and lay two olive brown eggs in a grassy nest, usually away from the cliffs the adults marks breed on. Adult skuas are highly protective of their nests, and both parents aggressively defend their young, and even actively attack birds and animals many times their size. Usually the skua will perform one or two warning fly-passes in an attempt to scare away any intruders, before ruthlessly attacking their target with both their beak and talons.

Five Fun Great Skua Facts

The word Skua comes from the Faroese word skuvur, and is the only word from the language that is regularly used outside of the Faroe Islands (2)

In the Shetland Isles the Great Skua is sometimes called a Bonxie, a term that comes from the word ‘bunkie’ a Norse word for a ‘corpulent woman’

The term Jaeger, a term used in relation to the smaller northern sukas, comes from the German word Jager which translates to ‘hunter’

The Great Skua is not the largest of the skua family, the Brown Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) is far larger and is almost 50% heavier than its Northern relatives

Great Skuas have been recorded hunting Leach’s Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) in the dead of night, hunting them on the wing and on foot. So far this behaviour has only been recorded on the island of St Kilda. (4)

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - Salomonsen, F. (1935). Den færøiske ornithologis historie indtil aar 1800 supplement. Dansk Ornithologisk Forenings Tidsskrift, 67–100.

3 - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/bonxie

4 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7069755.stm

Picture References

1 - http://www.uva-bits.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/great-skua.jpg

2 - http://www.planetofbirds.com/Master/CHARADRIIFORMES/Stercorariidae/maps/Great%20Skua.gif

More images may be added once the ‘Spam Bot’ has been fixed

Talk about bad behaviour, the Great Skua really has no shame unlike next week’s shame faced creature. Until then critic, comment and suggest future issues as well as making sure you check past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks and a Happy Thanksgiving (for all you Americans)

Impurest Cheese