Long Tailed Skua

The nest is a small scrape in the ground with very little lining and after breeding the female lays one to three, two inch by one inch eggs that are sleek and shiny. The olive or dull buff colored eggs have brown or gray spots. The incubation of the eggs lasts for 21 to 28 days. When the chicks hatch, mottled gray down covers them and they fledge in six to eight weeks.

The Skuas move from their northern breeding and nesting grounds sometime between May and September. While the Skua are in their winter quarters they spend all their time at sea though they will settle on drifting objects, on the shore at times and in the southern hemisphere will perch on ships.

INTERESTING FACTS- Sea farers and birders observe The Arctic Skua from the Southern Oceans to the Arctic. The Great Skua is a bipolar bird and lives in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. The Great Skuas are related to gulls.

During World War II standing orders at sea to officers and men of Britain's Royal Navy included advice on making sea bird logs for analysis by The Trust for Ornithology.

Many postage stamps throughout the world issued, honors the Skuas.

SEE: http://www.bird-stamps.org/species/61005...

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