Yes, Stercorarius; probably S. skua, though not sure how one would exclude some of the southern hemisphere species. In moult, with feather loss exposing white feather bases that are normally hidden.
The scientific name - https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_Skua :t:
Nope! Though some of them (notably S. antarctica [Brown Skua]) were lumped in S. skua as subspecies in some older texts.I thought you were suggesting Southern.
Brown Skua stays South and Southpolar Skua would be plainer and colder coloured. Looks fine for Great Skua.
Looks suspicious... wouldn't dare to ID it though
Suspicious is mainly the greyish brown base colour. Only juvenile Great Skua would be as plain at the underside but much darker and warmer brown. Still, it could be bleached or the colour of the photo misleading... also late December would be a strange date for SP Skua I suppose.
Thanks! Judging by geotagged birds, it seems South Polar Skua must be very much overlooked in Moroccan waters - see Fig. 1a here :t:I saw several of them in December flying thru/around Dhakla i must admit i didn’t give a thought to grilling them they just looked liked Bonxies..
Nice one Nutty, but now I have to swot up again on these Skuas to be ready for seawatching here in the Algarve ....hand on forehead, reaching for panadol! :-O
(fetching my coat already.........)
On a serious note though, my seawatching from Cabo de São Vicente would mean no photos probably - the thought of getting a South Polar go by and then gone in the scope and having the balls to tell anyone for fear of being a madman is a worrying reality!
Warn them ahead of time to keep their eyes open
Niels