South polar skuas nest on exposed ground around the Antarctic coast, including on the Ross Ice Shelf margins and near research stations. Sightings have been reported from the geographic South Pole, well inland from any sea and far from anything to eat, which makes the species one of the most extreme wanderers among birds.
The same individuals cover enormous distances outside the breeding season. Ringing and tracking have recorded south polar skuas in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, so a bird that raises chicks beside a penguin colony in the Antarctic summer may spend the other half of the year at northern latitudes. The migration is transequatorial and, in some cases, close to pole to pole.
Coastal skuas take a great deal of their breeding-season food from penguin colonies, mostly eggs, chicks and carrion. The frequent framing is of a specialist penguin predator, which is too narrow: diet includes fish taken at sea and, at some colonies, is dominated by marine foraging. What individual polar sightings represent, beyond dispersal, is unclear.