The South Polar Skua Stercorarius Maccormicki Saunders in Greenland

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The South Polar Skua Stercorarius Maccormicki Saunders in Greenland The South Polar Skua Stercorarius maccormicki Saunders in Greenland FINN SALOMONSEN (Med et dansk resume: Sydpolarkjoven Stercorarius maccormicki Saunders på Grønland). It is a well-known faet that the Great Skua It has been much discussed where the Stercorarius skua (Brtinnich) has a bipolar di­ southern Great Skuas spend the winter, but stribution, a number of geographical forms very little is known about it. It appears, how­ breeding in the Antarctic and Subantarctic ever, that a comparatively large number is areas. According to recent investigations, the pelagic and winter in the northern part of the southernmost of these forms, the South Polar Pacific, as well as in the Indian Ocean, while Skua maccormicki breeds sympatrically with not a single specimen is known from the At­ the Brown Skua !Onnbergi on the Antarctic lantic north of Brazil. According to the Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands and Check-List of North American Birds (1957, should, therefore, be regarded as a full spe­ p. 215) chilensis, lonnbergi and antarctica are cies. The breeding range of the different casually met with in the southern winter in forms is outlined in Fig. 1. the Pacific northwards to the coasts of Cali- 40° 20° 0° 20° 40° 60° 0'.)0 100° 12d' Fig. 1. Distribution of the Great Skua (Stercorarius skua, with various subspecies) and the South Polar Skua S. maccormicki. Note sympatry of the two species on the Antarctic Peninsula. (After Lockley 1974). Udbredelsen af Storkjoven (Stercorarius skua, med mange racer) og Sydpolarkjoven S. maccormicki. Be­ mærk at de to arter yngler sympatrisk på den Antarktiske Halvø. (Efter Lockley 1974). Dansk om. Foren. Tidsskr. (1976) 70: 81-89 82 South Polar Skua in Greenland Fig. 2. Dorsal view of the Greenland specimen (from Ujarasugssuk) of Stercorarius maccormicki (left), compared with an immature (centre) and adult (right) specimen of S. s. skua. The material belongs to the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen. Oversiden af det grønlandske eksemplar (fra Ujarasugssuk) af Stercorarius maccormicki (t.v.), sammenlig­ net med en ungedragt (midten) og en udfarvet fugl (t.h.) af St. s. skua. Materialet tilhører Zoologisk Mu­ seum i København. fornia, Washington and British Columbia. apparently occur north of the equator. The Great Skuas met with in South African Altogether, the picture is confusing and be­ waters have been referred to antarctica, ha­ wildering, but recent studies by the Belgian miltoni and !Onnbergi (Clancey 1965, p. 309), ornithologist Pierre Devillers (1976, in press) while in J apanese waters maccormicki is the have shown that Alexander comes nearest the only one to occur (Check-List of Japanese truth, since all records north of the equator Birds 1974, p. 132). Alexander (1954, p. 143) are referable to maccormicki. This species is gives the distribution of maccormicki in the the only southern Great Skua which regularly off-season as: »Antarctic Seas, occasionally migrates northwards and reaches the northern north to the South Orkneys and accidentally Pacific, at least in its immature stages (1-2 to Ceylon, New Zealand and Japan«, while year old hirds), while the other southern none of the remaining southern Great Skuas forms are all more or less stationary. The faet South Polar Skua in Greenland 83 Fig. 3. Ventral view of same specimens as in Fig. 2. Undersiden af de samme eksemplarer som vist i Fig. 2. that the young birds are migratory, but the on this as follows: »There is so far no formal adult ones stationary, agrees with the situa­ proof that the southern bonxies of today pe­ tion in many other sea birds, like gannets, netrate to the North Atlantic. Bonxies gulls and auks. It is noteworthy in this respect have been seen between the equator and the that all Greenland records of the northern West Indies in April and May, off the West Great Skua S. s. skua, which in recent years African coast south of the Cape Verde Islands occurs in Greenland waters in increasing in November, January and February, and in numbers, refer to immature, one or two year the central part of the Sargasso Sea between old, birds (Salomonsen 1967, p. 200). The October and December. But whether these are paper by Devillers on the Qreat Skuas has not southern or northern is not certain, as none yet appeared, but was accepted by the editor has been collected ...... Bonxies haunt Ameri- of The Auk more than a year ago. Devillers can waters through the summer, for instance very kindly sent me a copy of his manuscript. the fishing-grounds of Nantucket and the It is of particular interest that maccormicki Newfoundland Banks; but the suggestion that has not turned up in the North Atlantic. these may because of the season when they Fisher and Lockley (1954, p. 144) comment are seen - be southern birds must be resist- 84 South Polar Skua in Greenland ed.« It would, however, not be reasonable to vers Island at 64°45' S, 64°05 W. A second expect that these Skuas should be commonly nestling from another island close by was re­ observed, even if they occurred regularly in the cently recovered in Baja California on the Pa­ North Atlantic. Being aerial raptors, they are cific side of North America. Ae the skua not particularly numerous, even on the breed­ sightings off both coasts of North America ing places. When scattered over the huge are now suspect.« The recovery of the South areas of the oceans they appear to have al­ Polar Skua in Godthåbsfjord involves the most vanished. I refer to the three small spe­ longest journey of any bird ever recorded by cies of skuas (S. pomarinus, S. parasiticus ringing. and S. longicaudus), which all winter in the The two Greenland records of the South oceans south of the equator, where they are Polar Skua necessitate some comments. They extremely rarely met with. This holds good are both mapped in Fig. 4, where also the especially of S. longicaudus. Therefore, it ringing locality of the 197 5-specimen has been would at any rate be erroneous to assume that shown. The broken line on Fig. 4 shows the more than rare observations or odd specimens most probable route which the specimen has should be known from the North Atlantic, chosen for its stupendous migration, from the even if maccormicki should winter there ordi­ Antarctic to the Arctic waters. When it was narily. recorded in Greenland it had reached an age In the middle of J uly 1902 a Great Skua of only six months. This shows that it must was shot by a Greenland hunter at Ujarasugs­ have started migration very soon after it left suk, on the east-coast of Disko Island in the the nesting place. It no doubt followed the median part of the Greenland west-coast (on strong western winds during the migration, 69°50' N, 52°20' W). Inspector Daugaard­ perhaps passively drifted, as is usually the Jensen of the Greenland Administration, who case with immature, unexperienced indivi­ at that time happened to be present in this duals of various Antarctic sea birds, like little hamlet (abandoned years ago), bought Macronectes giganteus and Sterna paradisaea, the specimen and presented it to the Zoologi­ and probably also other species (cf. Salomon­ cal Museum in Copenhagen, where it is now sen 1967 a, p. 34). It passed through Drake kept as a skin. The record was published by Strait and crossed the South Atlantic, before Bertelsen (1921, p. 174), and since then turning to the north, just as Sterna paradisaea nobody has ever bothered about this speci­ does (Salomonsen 1967 a, Fig. 8). The other men. ringed specimen, recovered in Lower Califor­ When Devillers last year studied the Great nia, must have managed to slip north before Skuas in the Copenhagen collection he disco­ reaching Drake Strait. This is perhaps the vered that the specimen from Ujarasugssuk most common situation, according to the fre­ actually was an immature maccormicki (cf. quent occurrence of maccormicki in the Figs. 2-3). He mentioned this most interesting waters of Japan and of western U.S. discovery in his paper (197 6), and I should However, the occurrence of two specimens of not have gone into the subject again if a new the South Polar Skua in the waters of West Greenland record of the South Polar Skua Greenland strongly point to the faet that the had not turned up. immature birds of this species regularly win­ The 31 st J uly 197 5 a Great Skua was shot ter in the North Atlantic, where they un­ somewhere in the Godthåbsfjord (about doubtedly have been confused with specimens 64°30' N, 51° W). It had been ringed with a of the northern Great Skua S. s. skua. Washington band (877-34271) and a black In a way the South Polar Skua poses as a plastic ring. It turned out to be a maccor­ counterpart to the Arctic Tern Sterna paradi­ micki, which had been ringed as a nestling on saea, which migrates from the North Polar the 20th January 1975 by Prof. David F. Par­ countries to the South Polar regions and can melee of the Ford Bell Museum of Natural boast of receiving more sun-light that any History, Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Short­ other creature. The South Polar Skua, how­ cut Island in the Antarctic. At my request ever, is in the same en via ble situation, only it Prof. Parmelee gave me the following · infor­ migrates in the opposite direction of the Arc­ mation (in litt.): »Shortcut Island is a short tic Tern, from the South Polar to the North distance from the U.S.
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