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Brown Skua | Stercorarius antarcticus
Bruine jager | Págalo Subantártico
The Brown Skua is a heavy, gull-like predator of the southern oceans, as large as a Kelp Gull but bulkier and darker. In the cooler months it is the commonest skua off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia, often around trawlers.
Voice
Usually silent at sea; when squabbling over food behind ships sometimes a hoarse, nasal gek-gek-gek. At breeding sites loud, raucous calls given with the wings raised above the body.
Recording: Kevin Guille — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 63 cm, powerful and barrel-chested, with broad, rather blunt wings, a short, wedge-shaped tail and a heavy, hooked black bill. The plumage is dark warm brown with paler and rufous blotches and streaks on the mantle, scapulars and nape; the head is often slightly darker, sometimes with a dark cap. All plumages show a large white flash at the base of the primaries, visible above and below. Sexes alike. Juveniles are plainer and more rufous-brown, with less blotching. The flight is heavy and powerful, yet it chases other seabirds with agility.
Confusion species
South Polar Skua (Stercorarius maccormicki) is smaller and slimmer, with a finer bill; pale birds have a pale head and underparts, dark birds are cold, uniform brown without blotching. Great Skua (Stercorarius skua), a rare visitor from the north, is very similar but smaller, with golden streaks on the nape and mantle. Dark Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) is slimmer and longer-tailed. Young Kelp Gulls (Larus dominicanus) lack the white primary flash.
Habitat
Open sea over the continental shelf and shelf edge, particularly where trawlers discard offal. Also at seal colonies, seabird breeding colonies and occasionally close inshore. It scavenges, robs other seabirds of their prey and kills small seabirds.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In the winter months common off the west and south coasts of South Africa and off Namibia, scarcer north to Angola and along the east coast to KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique. It breeds on subantarctic islands around the Southern Ocean, including Tristan da Cunha, Gough, Marion and the Prince Edward Islands, and along the Antarctic Peninsula.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Almost guaranteed on any pelagic trip from Cape Town or Simon's Town between May and September, sitting on the water behind trawlers or chasing shearwaters. Sometimes also seen from land at Cape Point or from the harbour wall at Lambert's Bay.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Populations on the subantarctic islands are large and mostly stable. Bycatch in fisheries, oil pollution and changes in the amount of fishery discards affect numbers at sea.
Scientific name
Stercorarius antarcticus | (Lesson, 1831)
Lesson described the species in 1831 as Lestris antarcticus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Stercorarius was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Stercorarius is Latin for 'of dung', from stercus 'dung': the food disgorged by seabirds when pursued by skuas was once taken for excrement. antarcticus means 'Antarctic', for its breeding range on the subantarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. The specimen the first description was based on came from Falkland Islands.