Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about skuas. Skuas are also known as jaegers, a term which can also mean “hunter” and aptly applies to these birds. Commonly known as the brown birds who eat baby penguins, skuas look like a cross between a gull and a falcon, and they have fierce personalities. There are currently seven classified skua species and they live throughout the world, however, they’re most often at sea. These birds take to land during the breeding season, but when they aren’t nesting they are usually flying over the waves or living along coastlines. Four skua species live in the northern hemisphere and three live in the southern hemisphere. Though skuas may be more well known from their brown colored representatives, there are skua species who appear quite pale in color, such as the arctic skua, giving them a more gull-like appearance.

In size, skuas range from the smallest species, the long-tailed skua, who averages three and a half feet (1.06 meters) in wingspan; to the largest species, the great skua, averaging four and a half foot (1.39 meters) wingspans. While skuas may look like gulls at first glance, they come with some raptor-like characteristics. Skuas have stronger flight muscles and feathers than gulls, giving them an advantage in the air. This is important to note, and we’ll be discussing it further along in the episode. Skuas also have hooked claws on their webbed feet and thicker skin on their legs.

Most skua species are considered monogamous. In general, skuas will head to breeding grounds in the summer months and often return to the same place they nested the year before. These breeding sites are usually on offshore islands or in coastal areas. Smaller skua species begin breeding anywhere from one to two years of age, but the bigger birds may take five or more years before they reach reproductive maturity. A female will lay an average of two eggs, and she’ll spend more time incubating the eggs than the male. Adult skuas can pretty much fend for themselves, but eggs and nestlings may be taken by predators such as arctic foxes and brown rats or haplessly squashed by a roving seal. They also have to watch out for each other. The first skua egg will hatch a few days before the second and… well after our shoebill episode I’m sure you can figure out where this may lead. If food is plentiful, both the chicks can survive, but if food is scarce, the first chick may start to see its sibling as a treat… Of course, not all skuas will breed when food is scarce. Pomarine skuas heavily depend on lemming populations, and during low lemming years, the pomarines won’t breed.

Skuas are often referred to as avian pirates because they steal many of their meals from other birds. If a skua spots a gull or tern bringing a meal back to its family, the skua will attack the other bird, utilizing its stronger flight muscles, to make the gull or tern drop its meal. Skuas will also catch fish, eat puffins, hunt mammals, munch on seal placenta, and even snatch penguin eggs and chicks - though they do have to put up with angry penguin parents if they try that. In the wild, skuas may live at least a decade, but some have been known to reach more than double that!

For more facts on skuas, check out the links in the description. Thank you to Trevon Gayle for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.