Pomarine or Parasitic Jaeger? (1 Viewer)

[HGWBirder]

Hi all,

during a migration study in October 2007 in Azerbaijan (south-east Europe) I photographed this jaeger/skua at the Caspian sea. Surely identified were only parasitic jaegers, but there was this bird and I took a photo of it. For me this is a candidate for pomarine jaeger but Im not sure. What do you think?

Best wishes,

Michael

 

[RecoveringScot]

Hi all,

during a migration study in October 2007 in Azerbaijan (south-east Europe) I photographed this jaeger/skua at the Caspian sea. Surely identified were only parasitic jaegers, but there was this bird and I took a photo of it. For me this is a candidate for pomarine jaeger but Im not sure. What do you think?

Best wishes,

Michael

Sticking my neck out I'd say this looks pretty good. Pot-bellied, with a dark-tipped heavy-looking bill, broad wings, short tail, greyish shawl (or 'nape') and general heavy look, with a double white comma mark on the underwing and a restricted white flash on the upperwing.
HOWEVER, immature skuas are a bit difficult when in photos, so I may be corrected if someone points out any obvious things on the 'against' side.

Cheers,

 

[rob stoff]

Pom for me

Rob

 

[Jane Turner]

I'd have no doubts calling this a Pom on stucture - would like to see a bit of upper/under tc covert barring, but am more than willing to put the lack of appearance of them down to the quality of the photo.

 

[rob stoff]

I'd have no doubts calling this a Pom on stucture - would like to see a bit of upper/under tc covert barring, but am more than willing to put the lack of appearance of them down to the quality of the photo.

and some darker juv Poms are pretty uniform anyway

Rob

 

[the oilbird]

The second photo certainly looks pretty good for a Pom I would have thought, looks seriously chunky.

As Jane said be nice to see some barring. Distant skuas, and bad photos not a good combination for obtaining conclusive ID's in my experience.

 

[timwootton]

Looks fine for a Pomerine to me, too. The first pic has a suggestion of a two-toned bill as Phil points out and the structure in the second looks good (although it may be accentuated by the max. upbeat of the wings) - still ok to my rheumy old eye.

 

[Jane Turner]

and some darker juv Poms are pretty uniform anyway

Rob

Agreed - but they ought look took black in a photo like this!

Pretty sure you'd see the barring in a slightly clearer picture.

 

[HGWBirder]

In field this bird seemed to me chunkier than the other jaegers and the wing beats were slow and powerful. unforunatly i have only the experience of 20 parasitic and 20 unidentified jaegers and this bird was the closest ever for me. i photographed with a focal length of 400mm.

 

[goshawk227]

This bird, in additon to other features mentioned, seems just to be lethally bulky, even before opening up the picture. The jizz of it and everything else points towards Pom for me.

 

[martin kitching]

Keel shape, and the sheer bulk of the bird (although, as Tim already pointed out, this may be accentuated by the upbeat of the wings) make this unlikely to be anything other than a Pom.

cheers
martin (whose thoughts are drifting forward to July/August/September already...)

 

[Silvio Davison]

Pom for me too...