South Polar Skua added to British list
THE British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) has announced that South Polar Skua has been added to the British list on the basis of an immature at West Bexington, Dorset, between 27 January and 4 February 1996.
A long-predicted vagrant to
British waters, dataloggers have shown that significant numbers migrate annually to the Northern Hemisphere, while the species has been regularly sighted elsewhere in the North Atlantic, including off the coast of Ireland. During the breeding season, it is widespread in the Southern Ocean, where it nests in Antarctica, dispersing large distances during the nonbreeding season.
The status of the species as a vagrant to Britain has always been problematic, owing to the difficulty in separating South
Polar Skua from Great Skua and the closely related Brown Skua. Mitochondrial DNA does not distinguish between Brown and South Polar Skuas, adding an extra level of complexity.
This individual was assessed and accepted thanks to a series of photographs taken during its nine-day stay. Often showing at close range on the shingle beach, the images allowed the bird to be aged as secondcalendar-year owing to moult and plumage state as well as bare part colouration, features which were crucial to its identification.
South Polar Skua is added to Category A and takes the British list to a total of 627 species. ■
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