Photo Study Of Black Skimmers At E.B.Forsythe NWR (Brigantine), August 30th, 2010

Ed Norman and I were at Brigantine yesterday and the Black Skimmers put on quite a show. The Black Skimmer or Razor-billed Shearwater (Rynchops niger) is a tern-like seabird. The northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts. The male Black Skimmer is about 20 inches long with a 48 inch wingspan; the female is about 16.75 inches long and has a wingspan of 44.5 inches. The basal half of its bill is red, the rest mainly black, and the lower mandible is much-elongated. The eye has a dark brown iris with a catlike vertical pupil, unique for a bird. The legs are red. The call is a barking kak-kak-kak.

Skimmers have a light graceful flight, with steady beats of their long wings. They usually feed in large flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish, insects, crustaceans and mollusks, which they catch by touch by day or especially at night. They spend much time loafing gregariously on sandbars in the rivers, coasts and lagoons they frequent.The Black Skimmer breeds in loose groups on sandbanks and sandy beaches in the Americas. The migratory Black Skimmer breeds on the Atlantic coast of North America, and from southern California to Ecuador in the Pacific. (Wikipedia; Cornell BNA)

Black Skimmer Skimming

Black Skimmer Flying
 
Black Skimmers Being Gregarious On A Sandbar At Brigantine, June 2008

Black Skimmers At Brigantine

Black Skimmer Sleeping On The Beach At Stone Harbor, May 2008

Juvenile Black Skimmer On The Beach At Stone Harbor, May 2008

To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!

 Howard B. Eskin 2010       Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com      Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index