Stercorarius maccormicki
Silhouette: Liam Quinn (photo) and Albertonykus (silhouette) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 skuas, such as the great skua, are sometimes placed in a separate genus Catharacta.
The south polar skua is a large bird (though small compared to other skuas sometimes placed in Catharacta) that measures around 53 cm (21 in) in length. Adults are greyish brown above, and have a whitish (pale morph) or straw-brown (intermediate morph) head and underparts, and the contrast between head and body makes it easy to separate from similar species with good views. Juveniles and adult dark morphs are harder to distinguish from their relatives, and more subjective or difficult-to-observe criteria, such as the colder brown plumage and blue bill base, must be used.
Distinguishing this skua from the Northern Hemisphere Arctic, pomarine, and long-tailed skuas is relatively straightforward. The large size, massive barrel chest, and white wing flashes of this bird are distinctive even at a... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a South Polar Skua sighting in Dakar on a given day, based on 25 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 89th most-seen of the 152 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a South Polar Skua in Dakar on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, May–June and August, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most South Polar Skua sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Dakar, in our data
Dakar is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate South Polar Skua sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Stercorarius
The closest relatives of the South Polar Skua that you can see in Dakar (genus Stercorarius, Skuas and Jaegers) are Parasitic Jaeger (about 30%), Pomarine Jaeger (about 20%) and Long-tailed Jaeger (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the South Polar Skua is recorded against all the birds logged in Dakar (25 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
