All birds/Stercorariidae/Great Skua
AI reconstruction of Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)AI

AI reconstruction created with Nano Banana 2 · 1K, grounded in the profile’s documented taxonomy, habitat, natural-history sources, and an open-license visual reference when available. It is an interpretive image, not documentary evidence. Image policy

Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)
Verified source photographUlrich LatzenhoferCC-BY-SA · View source
PRB-0133Charadriiformes

Great Skua

Págalo Grande

Stercorarius skua

Accidental / vagrantIUCN LC · Least Concern

The great skua (Stercorarius skua), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken from other birds.

FamilyStercorariidaeSkuas and Jaegers
Puerto Rico occurrenceAccidental / vagrantAvibase inferred core 380
Primary habitatopen-oceanSea
Primary dietFishAquatic predator
Average mass1370 gGlobal trait estimate
MovementMigratoryAerial

Sound archive

Hear its voice

Explore real songs and calls. The spectrogram turns each sound into a visual trace of time and frequency.

XC642112Recording 1 of 3call, flight call
Spectrogram of Great Skua: call, flight call
SpectrogramStercorarius skua

Play: call, flight call by Andrew Harrop

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Sound recorded by Andrew Harrop · XC642112 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Visualization by Stichting Xeno-canto voor Natuurgeluiden.

Every recording retains the creator, catalogue number, and license published by Xeno-canto. Metadata via GBIF

Island profile

Catalog scopeAvibase inferred core 380

About the Great Skua

The great skua (Stercorarius skua), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken from other birds.

Conservation

Least Concern

IUCN LC

Global IUCN
LC
Puerto Rico DNER
No current listing in source crosswalk
Federal ESA
No current listing in source crosswalk
Critical habitat
Not identified in source crosswalk

Natural history

How it lives

Habitat
open-ocean
Elevation
0–0 m
Nest
Scrape · Ground
Clutch
1–2 eggs
Social behavior
Colonial; Social / flocking

Keep exploring

This bird belongs to 6 paths through the atlas.

Evidence trail

Sources, media & further reading