Although currently the first skua in the IOC list, this is not the basal taxon, indeed there is much to learn about the taxonomy of skuas.
This is a quite distinctive bird, unlike most of the Stercorarius genus, occurring on both littorals of southern South America. Dispersal takes it as far as southern Peru and northeast
Brazil, but breeding colonies occur on remote coasts and islets to south central Chile, less far north in Argentina. There is limited hybridisation with Brown Skua in Argentina.
Taken Chile March 2015 and Ushuaia March 2005
Click on the photo to return to front page or here for
HOMEPAGE
