skua

American  

[skyoo-uh] / ˈskyu ə /

noun

1. Also called bonxie.  any of several large brown gull-like predatory birds of the genus Catharacta, related to jaegers, especially C. skua great skua, of colder waters of both northern and southern seas.

2. British. jaeger.

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skua British  

/ ˈskjuːə /

noun

1. any predatory gull-like bird of the family Stercorariidae, such as the great skua or bonxie ( Stercorarius skua ) or arctic skua ( S. parasiticus ) both of which harass terns or gulls into dropping or disgorging fish they have caught

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Etymology

Origin of skua

1670–80; < Faeroese skū ( g ) vur; cognate with Old Norse skūfr tassel, tuft, also skua (in poetry), akin to shove ¹

Example Sentences

There were seagulls and puffins and cormorants and vultures and skuas and terns and sandpipers and eagles and every other type of northern bird, all flying together.

From Literature

Five other seabirds were already on the list - the puffin, kittiwake, herring gull, roseate tern and arctic skua.

From BBC

Last month, Spanish researchers confirmed that H5N1, the highly pathogenic form of avian influenza, had finally turned up—as long feared—in Antarctica, in two dead birds called skuas near an Argentine research station.

From Science Magazine

Bird flu was first identified on South Georgia in October 2023, in the large scavenging seabird known as the brown skua, with detections in kelp gulls shortly after.

From BBC

Just two months later, the virus was detected in brown skuas in South Georgia, the first cases in the region.

From New York Times