small skua in Clevedon today (1 Viewer)

This bird which was also seen in Wales (see @Tatelloyd76 for further pics.) has divided opinion between arctic and long-tailed so without expressing a final view myself I thought it would be instructive to post here. Flight picture lightened slightly, otherwise all just cropped if necessary. Bird walked up to us a couple of times and flew to within 3 feet at one stage....so quite tame

Arctic for me on body structure and bill shape :t:

cafe birder said:

This bird which was also seen in Wales (see @Tatelloyd76 for further pics.) has divided opinion between arctic and long-tailed so without expressing a final view myself I thought it would be instructive to post here. Flight picture lightened slightly, otherwise all just cropped if necessary. Bird walked up to us a couple of times and flew to within 3 feet at one stage....so quite tame

Click to expand...

There is clear contrast between remiges and paler wing coverts and no pale patch below wing, so surely Long-tailed.

Yep, it’s a long-tailed.

Long-tail for me on size, proportions and 2 White primary shafts:t:

Laurie -

Thanks for all the help everyone. I posted pics on twitter and got about a 50/50 split in ID which just confirmed to me how difficult skuas are.

I have now spent a few hours with books and reexamined all my pics including the one I should have posted which is attached.

In brief I have satisfied myself that its a long-tailed and almost certainly a moulting adult. I was swayed by: bill slightly too deep for arctic, dark trailing edge to upper secondaries in one pic, only two white feather shafts in upperwing, no clear white bases to primaries below, too smooth a lower edge to front of cap, slightly lower proportion to head projection v wing width.

I was heavily swayed by the supposedly diagnostic white flecking around bill in arctic skua which this shows in some pics but now have to believe this cannot be diagnostic in this age class.

I hoped the pale/dark ratio in the tarsus would be useful but it does not seem to be from my study

Again many thanks to all, I have learnt a lot