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The UK Bird Atlas

Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)Where and when to see it in the UK

Summer visitor · reporting peaks August to September · Jaegers and Skuas · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Great Skua (Stercorarius skua)
Psychofox at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Great Skua: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Great Skua has been recorded in 889 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (30%) in records to 2026. Summer visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in Scotland, England and Wales. Reporting peaks in August to September.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
36% or more of visits
High
9% to 36%
Moderate
2% to 9%
Low
under 2%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 5%<1%Low
February 5%<1%Very high
March 3%<1%Low
April 21%<1%Very high
May 53%1%Very high
June 75%2%Very high
July 66%1%Very high
August 100%2%Very high
September 100%2%Very high
October 47%1%Low
November 24%<1%Low
December 11%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in August

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D40Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland100%Very high
HP52Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HP62Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high
HT93Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HT94Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU14Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU37Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU49Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU53Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU72Sea, off Shetland Islands100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.