BirdingNZ.net

Hi David,

This is a pale juv Arctic Skua. Bill and head too small for Pom, plumage is fairly typical, and pointy central rects are visible.

Russ C

Hard to judge scale from the picture, but it was a big bird, too big to be an arctic I would have thought.

Hi David,

Agree re: judging size (especially when looking at a photo with no other birds for comparison). Here I'm going on structure (eg Head size relative to neck). Those spiky tail feathers are probably the easiest way to clinch it though as they rule out Pom and bigger skuas almost automatically.

Jaegers and skuas, like gulls can show a bit of sexual dimorphism in terms of size so perhaps it was just a really big boy filled with tern puke!

P.s. This is just my limited assessment. If someone can point out why this can't be an Arctic I'm open to it. Skuas are variable and thus mucho tricky.