The eggs and chicks of other seabirds, primarily penguins, are an important food source for most skua species during the nesting season. [6] In the southern oceans and Antarctica region, some skua species (especially the south polar skua) will readily scavenge carcasses at breeding colonies of both penguins and pinnipeds.

Often a visitors first sight of a skua is at a penguin colony where they usually are nesting nearby. They hang around as a dark presence looking for unguarded eggs or weak or isolated chicks to prey on, which is a very productive means of finding food, but does their reputation no good at all.

Arctic skuas typically lay their eggs in early July. The eggs are incubated by both parents for around 26 days. The eggs typically hatch around the last week of July or very early August. Once the eggs hatch, both parents feed the chicks who, like most ground nesting birds, leave the nest relatively quickly after hatching.

2018年1月8日 · Skuas are deft fliers that can swoop in on an uncovered egg and snatch it away in a moment. They tend to steal the eggs of younger, less experienced penguin parents.

One skua is in charge of sitting on the nest, the other looks for fish or cruises penguin colonies in search of prey. The prime concern to skua eggs is that a rogue skua may threaten them, which can result in territory shifts during the breeding season.

It breeds on Antarctic coasts, usually laying two eggs in November and December. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. In the eastern North Atlantic, it is replaced by the closely-related great skua (S. skua). South polar skuas have been seen at the actual Geographic South Pole.

2011年5月1日 · Here we present levels of legacy and newer POPs in eggs of a top predator in the Northwest Atlantic, the Great skua Stercorarius skua. Based on the literature on long-term trends in POPs in the North Atlantic, we predict that legacy POPs would be higher in Great skua eggs from 1980 and PBDEs would be higher in eggs from 2008.

What Do Great Skua Eggs Look Like? The eggs of the great skua are a buff or olive colour and covered in dark brown spots or freckles. The colour and markings on the eggs act as a perfect camouflage when viewed from above. The eggs are around 70 x 50 mm in size and weigh around 91 g. The shell makes up around 7% of the overall weight of the egg.

2024年5月27日 · Females lay one to two eggs and incubate them anywhere from 23 to 30 days, depending on the skua. The females tend the nest alone, but males will bring her food.

Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus), also known as Arctic or Parasitic Jaeger, is a large seabird and a relative of gulls that fly quickly. The name Parasitic Jaeger comes from their habit of stealing food from other birds, termed kleptoparasitism ("Parasitic"), and the German word jäger, meaning hunter, because of its predatory nature ...