The dispersal and philopatry of great skuas from foula, shetland

Abstract

Ring recovery data were used to describe the dispersal of Great Skuas from Foula, Shetland, from 1963 to 1990. In general, the dispersal patterns and causes of recoveries had not changed since they were first described by Furness (1978) up to 1977. However, recoveries of 1–4year‐olds had increased since 1977 and recoveries of first‐year birds were greater after 1986 than for all previous years combined. Ring recovery data and observations of individually colour‐ringed birds provided several lines of evidence suggesting that levels of immigration and emigration in the Great Skua population on Foula were very low. Great Skuas also displayed a high degree of micro‐philopatry, generally choosing clubs and breeding sites within areas on the island from which they originated. © 1992 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.