Stercorarius en Lanzarote a identificar ( Canarias ) (1 Viewer)

[juancar dieguez]

Hello, I have this Stercorarius photographed in Lanzarote, in December 2019.

At first I thought about Stercorarius skua, but it seems to me that his neck is light tones and it misleads me ...

 

[Richard Prior]

The images are a bit tricky but it feels like an Arctic Skua to me Juancar, particularly with that bill that looks pretty slender which favours that species, but others with more recent skua experiences will hopefully help with this one!

 

[smiths]

It is a Great Skua (Bonxie).

 

[dantheman]

The images are a bit tricky but it feels like an Arctic Skua to me Juancar, particularly with that bill that looks pretty slender which favours that species, but others with more recent skua experiences will hopefully help with this one!

Well, I wasn't going to comment on the id ( ;-) ), but certainly the thin bill probably a result of the image quality and being 'blown'

 

[THE_FERN]

My thought was "this is a great skua: the thin bill is a photo artefact. But hold up: the Atlantic coast of Spain/Portugal etc gets things like South Polar Skua so I don't know how you'd rule those out from these images. I imagine any large skua like this is rare around the Canaries [but I don't know if that's true]"

 

[DMW]

My thought was "this is a great skua: the thin bill is a photo artefact. But hold up: the Atlantic coast of Spain/Portugal etc gets things like South Polar Skua so I don't know how you'd rule those out from these images. I imagine any large skua like this is rare around the Canaries [but I don't know if that's true]"

Given the December date, would SPS be expected to have returned South for the austral summer? Maybe some non-breeding birds linger?

I saw a Bonxie on my one and only ferry crossing in the Canaries, so I don't suppose they are unusual there.

 

[THE_FERN]

Given the December date, would SPS be expected to have returned South for the austral summer? Maybe some non-breeding birds linger?

I saw a Bonxie on my one and only ferry crossing in the Canaries, so I don't suppose they are unusual there.

Fine. I think my point is that I'm not certain we can rule out other species given the quality of the image. If we're happy to go on time of year, balance of probability etc then it's great skua