Arctic skua
Stercorarius parasiticus
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What to look out for:
This is a dark coloured medium sized seabird, with two distinctive long
feathers at the middle of the tail. It is about the same size as a common
gull, with white patches on its wing tips. Often seen flying low over the water
before pursuing other seabirds such as
terns, it twists, climbs and dives until
they relinquish their food.
When to see it:
They nest and breed on the coasts in northern Scotland
during summer. In late summer and autumn they are birds of passage down the
west and the east coasts of Scotland and in spring are seen in passage again northwards.
Where to see it:
Breeding birds can be found on Shetland and the Orkneys, also on coastal
moorlands in the north and west.
Things to think about:
Arctic skuas are dependant on stealing food from its target species, such as
terns. Its own breeding success is therefore dependent on the ability of its
target species to find food, in particular sand eels. The failure of the sand
eel fisheries in Northern waters due to overfishing has therefore had an impact
on numbers.
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