Skua display

[John Chardine]

I was lucky enough to spend some time with a pair of skuas at Yankee Harbour, Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, recently. They were on a nest with one egg and took no notice of me. However, if the other member of the pair or a "foreign" skua flew over, the bird at the nest invariably displayed with this classic wings-up pose.

I lightened up the bird's head and breast a little with the dodge tool. I admit to cropping tight in the camera so have cropped a bit more here to really focus on the face and pose. Would people prefer to see the whole bird?

BTW, I purposely have not mentioned the species of skua here. Bird watchers get very excited about skuas and exactly what species they have seen. They could save themselves a lot of anguish by reading the scientific literature on the subject- skuas in Antarctica freely interbreed and produce fertile offspring, which often back-cross with parental types. There is really only one skua species in Antarctica and it may be the same species that occurs in the Northern Hemisphere.

Date: 28 November, 2011, Time: 0933h
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, @ 221 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 400, 1/1000s, f/7.1
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: no flash

[pat lillich]

John, i love the delicate colors and detail in the mouth - the perfect wings give it a surreal feel. I really love this photo!

[Richard Stern]

Hi John,

I think I would prefer to see the bird a little darker and the top primary tips visible. Otherwise yes, great details and facial expression. So what do you call it - South Polar, Chilean, Brown, or something else?

BTW, the eagles are not being very co-operative at Sheffield Mills so far this w/e.

Richard

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi John, I like the high-key look and think the exposure is right for this bird. Most images I've seen of this bird are underexposed and lacking in detail, but this one looks great to me. Not sure about the clipped wingtips but the capture of the display is great. Love the hunched up back of the neck...

[Dan Brown]

Great capture, John! Love the detail in the mouth. I like the posted crop, but I would like to see the whole bird also.

[Andrew Merwin]

John, I like the detail in the bird's open mouth, the feather detail & the very well exposed eye as well as the entire image. I find the wings distracting because, to me, they appear detached from the skua & floating behind it. I would like to see where the wings are attached to the body so they are anchored.

[Gus Hallgren]

John;

Definitely WOW from the first moment, would hang that front and center when you opened the front door. Would stop folks in their tracks.

Wing tips, no. Personally I think it would be more powerful cropped down to the top of the dark brown about half way down.

Well done.

Gus

[John Chardine]

Thanks Gus, and thanks everyone. I clipped the wings in the camera so there's no turning back (well I do have wings from other frames but life is short).

I was stirring the pot a little with the comments on species! The latest work on the skua complex strongly suggests that the speciation process is still at work- in a sense, a current example of macro-evolution in action. Whether you view skuas as species or varieties/subspecies depends on the species concept you follow. They appear to hybridise far too much to satisfy Mayr's Biological Species Concept.

[Paul Lagasi]

Sharp image (wing tips or no), the bill detail and face is wild. John, is the lens you were using a L-series....?

[John Chardine]

Hi Paul- This 70-300 is L-series and very good indeed. It's too bad it wasn't f4 across the entire range of focal lengths, but I guess it would have to be a bulkier lens in this case.