Bird from South Pole spotted in the Channel Islands for first time

Monday 04 December 2023

The South Polar Skua spends most of its life at sea and usually more at home among penguins than in St Ouen's Bay...

But the bird, which hails all the way from Antarctica, has recently been spotted in the Channel Islands for the first time.

The bird breeds in the Antarctic, with young skuas heading north to the Pacific and North Atlantic during winter.

The juvenile bird seen in Jersey may have been blown off course by strong winds in the aftermath of Storm Ciarán.

After being discovered feasting on a dead conger eel at L'Étacq, the exhausted skua was picked up, given rest and food and checked by licensed bird ringers before being successfully released shortly afterwards at Corbière, in the hope that the juvenile bird will return to its Antarctic home to breed.

The extremely rare visitor is a first for Jersey and the Channel Islands, and is only the fourth record for the British Isles.

Pictured top: The visitor was captured on camera by Romano da Costa.