THE BLACK SKIMMER FINDS IT’S FOOD BY TOUCH

The black skimmer (Rynchops niger) is a tern-like seabird that breeds in North and South America.Its distinctive feature is its large red and black bill, which begins to widen at the top and gradually becomes smaller as it forms a sharp tip at the end of the bill.

Skimmers have a distinctive flight style, usually very low to the water, with long upstrokes but short downstrokes to stay clear of the water.

They feed by opening the bill and dropping the long, narrow lower mandible into the water, skimming along until they feel a fish, then relaxing the neck, quickly closing their jaws, and whipping the fish out of the water.

The subspecies intercedens has a brown tail in parts of Brazil through Argentina.The Black Skimmer Conservation Management Plan aims to maintain a self-sustaining population that is secure in perpetuity by maintaining a five-year annual mean minimum number of ten colonies and a five-year annual mean minimum population of 550 breeding pairs.