Seabirds around fishing vessels

Southern skua

Catharacta antarctica

The southern skua, also called the brown skua, is the only species of skua breeding in the New Zealand region. Although also breeding elsewhere, less than 500 pairs breed annually in New Zealand. These birds breed on most subantarctic islands, as well as on islands off Fiordland, Stewart Island, and Chatham Islands. This species might sometimes be misidentified as the south polar skua.

Catharacta antarctica
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of southern skua recorded around fishing vessels during counts carried out by government observers, binned to 0.4 degree of longitude and latitude. The size of the circle indicates the number of observations, whereas the colour indicates the mean number of birds recorded during counts. Empty circles indicate that no birds were observed. The grey areas indicate water depths of less than 1000 m.

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