Short-tailed Skua: The main criminal of the Arctic! His whole life is theft, racketeering and thieves' romance (8 photos)

Evening at home, gentlemen! Today he is special, because I want to introduce the sharpest guy among birds - a short-tailed skua, a professional racketeer, a robber and just a charming handsome guy.





This guy is not looking for easy ways, and therefore covers the polar regions of North America, Europe and Asia. The climate here is harsh, but organized crime groups are thriving: there are plenty of honest feathered workers around who can be stopped.



It’s easy to recognize a recidivist bandit: he’s like a seagull, but much angrier. The disguised criminal is identified by a brown tint of plumage, a predatory, slightly curved beak, claws on webbed feet and a “bayonet” of two feathers in the middle of the tail. But no rooster brightness, only clear street style.





Unfortunately, such a cool outfit doesn’t help you approach from around the corner - there are no such clothes in the Arctic, it’s just a wasteland all around! So the birds had to adapt their robber business to local realities: they learned to quickly attack and maneuver superbly. You can’t get rid of the feathered gopot, and it’s difficult to defeat them in a fair fight - the white and brown bandits compensate for the size of an average seagull with arrogance.



Scheme for withdrawing nishtyaks

Skuas do not want their victims to die, because a dead bird will not bring you new fish. Their task is to force the poor fellow to throw the tasty treat and catch it themselves. They ram a tern or a puffin and press it to the surface of the water, but this trick does not work with gannets. They have to be intimidated: pricked with the beak and pulled out feathers until the bird understands that the skin is more valuable to it and releases the prey. The food will go to the fastest criminal, not necessarily to the one who pressed the innocent animal. Even a seagull, a professional thief, can get a tasty treat.



Skuas know how to hunt themselves and can even snack on berries, other people's eggs and carrion. But the romance of bandit life is more important; they switch to other food only in conditions of extreme hunger, wintering or during the mating season. With the first and second, everything is quite simple: the tundra is poor in the gifts of nature, so many animals use several sources of food at once and move away from the cold. Our guys, for example, have chosen the resorts of the Black and Mediterranean Seas.



But love is worthy of detailed analysis. Sneaky deeds don't like publicity, so for most of the year the birds stay away from each other. But the short Arctic summer speeds up the blood, and the bandits begin to take a closer look at the robbers in small bird markets. You need to choose carefully, because leaving your chick is not according to concepts, you will have to live with her until the end.



The Gopnik couple doesn’t bother with the family nest. They believe that for truly level-headed boys, an ordinary hole in the ground is enough. The father and mother watch the couple of packed children for about a month, and another month is spent feeding the babies. The final chord of parental duty is training: for 2 months, young gopniks learn to fly and get food under the supervision of their parents. And then they kick themselves onto a slippery slope.



My rating for the Short-tailed Skua: 7 beaten gannets out of 10. A rare case: a predator does not kill its victims, but simply forces them to give up food! In a sense, this is worthy of respect, it’s a pity that his vile temper spoils everything.