skua

American

[skyoo-uh] / ˈskyu ə /

noun

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.
British. jaeger.

skua British

/ ˈskjuːə /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But a particularly dangerous strain of the disease was detected in April 2024 by Chilean researcher Victor Neira and his team in five skuas, a type of polar seabird.

From Barron's

Earlier in 2024, scientists detected H5N1 in a kelp gull and two skuas that were found dead in January and February.

From Science Daily

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023