Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Stercorariidae > Stercorarius > Stercorarius maccormicki
 

Stercorarius maccormicki (South Polar Skua)

Synonyms: Catharacta maccormicki

Wikipedia Abstract

The South Polar Skua, Stercorarius maccormicki, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick’s Skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. This species and the other large southern hemisphere skuas, together with Great Skua, are sometimes placed in a separate genus Catharacta.
View Wikipedia Record: Stercorarius maccormicki

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.97 lbs (1.35 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  89.4 grams
Female Weight [1]  3.13 lbs (1.42 kg)
Male Weight [1]  2.82 lbs (1.28 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  11.3 %
Clutch Size [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [4]  23 years 6 months
Migration [3]  Intercontinental

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Map Climate Land
Use
Clipperton Island shrub and grasslands France Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands  
Scotia Sea Islands tundra United Kingdom Antarctic Tundra    

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Map Climate Land Use
Aleutian Islands Biosphere Reserve 2720489 Alaska, United States    
California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve 153447 California, United States  
Cape Hatteras National Seashore II 21476 North Carolina, United States
Coorong National Park II 121235 South Australia, Australia
Farallon National Wildlife Refuge IV 352 California, United States
Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve II 366714 British Columbia, Canada
Olympic Biosphere Reserve II 922805 Washington, United States
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve II 137900 British Columbia, Canada
Palmer LTER Site Long Term Ecological Research   Antarctica    
Point Reyes National Seashore II 27068 California, United States
Redwood National Park II 77867 California, United States
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area V 38440 California, United States

Prey / Diet

Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass)[5]
Electrona antarctica (Lanternfish)[5]
Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill)[6]
Pagothenia borchgrevinki (Bald notothen)[7]
Pleuragramma antarctica (Antarctic silverfish)[8]
Polytrichum alpestre[5]
Protomyctophum choriodon (Lanternfish)[5]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Aphrodroma brevirostris (Kerguelen Petrel)1
Aptenodytes forsteri (Emperor Penguin)3
Aptenodytes patagonicus (King Penguin)1
Arctocephalus gazella (Antarctic Fur Seal)4
Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Minke Whale)1
Daption capense (Cape Petrel)2
Eudyptes chrysolophus (Macaroni Penguin)2
Fulmarus glacialoides (Southern Fulmar)1
Halobaena caerulea (Blue Petrel)1
Lagenorhynchus cruciger (Hourglass Dolphin)1
Larus dominicanus (Kelp Gull)1
Leptonychotes weddellii (Weddell Seal)1
Lobodon carcinophaga (Crabeater Seal)1
Macronectes giganteus (Southern Giant Petrel)1
Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback Whale)1
Mirounga leonina (Southern Elephant Seal)1
Oceanites oceanicus (Wilson's Storm-Petrel)1
Pachyptila belcheri (Slender-billed Prion)1
Pachyptila desolata (Antarctic Prion)1
Pachyptila turtur (Fairy Prion)1
Pagodroma nivea (Snow Petrel)3
Phoebetria palpebrata (Light-mantled Albatross)1
Procellaria aequinoctialis (White-chinned Petrel)1
Pygoscelis adeliae (Adelie Penguin)2
Pygoscelis antarcticus (Chinstrap Penguin)1
Pygoscelis papua (Gentoo Penguin)1
Sterna vittata (Antarctic Tern)1
Thalassarche chrysostoma (Grey-headed Albatross)2
Thalassarche melanophris (Black-browed Albatross)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Haffneria grandis[9]
Tetrabothrius mawsoni[9]

Range Map

Link to Map

External References

Photos

Citations

Species recognized by , , ITIS Global: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System in Catalog of Life 2011
Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1Higgins, PJ and Davies, SJJF (Eds). (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds. Vol. 3, Snipe to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne ♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605 ♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org ♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 5Diet of the south polar skua Catharacta maccormicki and the brown skua C. antarctica lonnbergi at Cierva Point, Antarctic Peninsula, Silvina L. Malzof, Rubén D. Quintana, Polar Biol (2008) 31:827–835 ♦ 6DENSITIES OF ANTARCTIC SEABIRDS AT SEA AND THE PRESENCE OF THE KRILL EUPHAUSIA SUPERBA, BRYAN S. OBST, The Auk 102: 540-549. July 1985 ♦ 7The role of notothenioid fish in the food web of the Ross Sea shelf waters: a review, M. La Mesa, J. T. Eastman, M. Vacchi, Polar Biol (2004) 27: 321–338 ♦ 8Food of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica, Y. Cherel and G. L. Kooyman, Marine Biology (1998) 130: 335-344 ♦ 9Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 gis.wwfus.org/wildfinder
Protected Areas provided by Biological Inventories of the World's Protected Areas in cooperation between the Information Center for the Environment at the University of California, Davis and numerous collaborators.
Images provided by Google Image Search
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Range map provided by Ridgely, R. S., T. F. Allnutt, T. Brooks, D. K. McNicol, D. W. Mehlman, B. E. Young, and J. R. Zook. 2007. Digital Distribution Maps of the Birds of the Western Hemisphere, version 3.0. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Data provided by NatureServe in collaboration with Robert Ridgely, James Zook, The Nature Conservancy - Migratory Bird Program, Conservation International - CABS, World Wildlife Fund - US, and Environment Canada - WILDSPACE.
Weather provided by NOAA METAR Data Access