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Photo by tcollins
Photographed at Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Stercorarius pomarinus

Alternative Name: Pomarine Skua

Identification

53cm including 8cm tail projection of broad twisted streamers
Pale Adult

• Black cap
• Dark upper parts
• White underneath with brown breast band and flank bars
• White flash on outer wing

Dark Adult all dusky-brown body
Juveniles and immature variably mottled buff/brown

Similar Species

• Arctic Skua

Distribution

Photo by IanF
Dark phased - Photographed at North Gare, Seaton Carew, Cleveland, UK

Far north of Eurasia and North America. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the tropical oceans.

Taxonomy

Habitat

It nests on arctic tundra and islands

Behaviour

Breeding

It lays 2-3 olive-brown eggs in grass lined depressions.

Diet

Its diet includes lemmings and other rodents on the breeding grounds.

It will also kill birds up to the size of Common Gull.

Bird Song

References

1. Wikipedia
2. Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
3. Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
4. Collins Field Guid 5th Edition

External Links