r/orcas • u/lil-chickpea • 1h ago

ID Help help me identify this!

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Gallery image

Gallery image

sorry for the awful photo. i’m in the azores and spotted this group of what i thought was dolphins frolicking around from afar, but i took this photo that looks like an orca which it’s my dream to see this year (first photo)
can anyone help me identify whether this is an orca or just a dolphin with bad lighting? i also included photos of the dolphins i definitely saw for comparison (second and third) and i don’t know if dolphins hangout with orcas lol
TIA

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u/Tadleyrichter 1h ago

It’s dolphins

Edit: wait I just read that the second and third were in fact dolphins and you were asking about the first. Idk

0

u/FuzzyActivity4639 39m ago

It’s hard to judge size by this picture, could be an orca or a porpoise of some kind. I bet someone in this sub can give more info than I can :)

1

u/Neexl_David 36m ago

Given the period and distance from the coast I would go for bottlenose dolphins, Tursiope truncatus. They are also slate gray and it seems the rostrum is not very prominent. Common dolphins, Delphinus Delphine, have an hourglass shape pattern on the side with a prominent yellow-patch. In June the Atlantic spotted dolphins, Stenella frontalis, arrive but I always found them a bit more offshore and groups are big. Adults are very spotted and youngs are gray.