Oklahoma Vagrants: South Polar Skua

 

Rare from Antarctic nesting grounds, a few of these birds can rarely pass on either of our open oceans from May through October.  They practice kleptoparasitism, like many open water birds and eat fish on the open water.

Once known as MacCormick's skua, this predatory large seabird nests off the edges of Antarctica, hence the name.  Having a very large migratory range, some may winter as far north as Greenland.

Large birds to many of us, they are actually small in comparison to skuas in general.  They have both light- and dark morph birds, where the light subspecies contrasts beautifully with a dark upperside.  The dark adult shows a pale crescent and nape with uniform dark upperparts.

During the second week of August 2013, this territorial bird visited the dual county area of Lake Overholser, both Canadian and Oklahoma Counties, where it sustained itself on eight Cattle Egrets, a far cry from the normal fish diet.  Brian Marra obtained a beautiful photo of the skua attacking a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron on 8 August, which follows:


  

                    copyright, Brian Marra 2013

Thusly, Mr. Marra was a witness of some very rare natural history observed by few humans.  This is the only eBird sighting in Oklahoma at this time.  Oddly enough, several Cattle Egrets made it to the Goose Island area of Boomer Lake in Stillwater a short time after the skua arrived in Oklahoma.

This stocky, gull-like bird has been observed at the South Pole.  A bird to be reckoned with during breeding season, it has flown directly at a person's head in order to protect its nest.  One photographer in 1911, said that he was nearly blinded by one of the species' members.

Skuas begin nesting when six or seven years of age, and those short summers have their toll on the process.  Even though the female lays two eggs, the older chick will eat the younger or drive it away and it dies.  If the older chick survives, it battled the effects of the wind successfully.

The Adelie Penguin youngster can also be a formidable foe, as those flippers are perfect for apprehending a meal, which would be the well-feathered baby skua.  It is all due to survival of the fittest in that fierce climate.  The skua brings those survival instincts into adulthood, and it must eat.

Conversely, this skua enjoys the eggs of penguins, but the Brown Skua usually eats them first.

The species is normally a pelagic bird and only visits land while breeding.