Black Skimmer

Rynchops niger

eBird describes the Black Skimmer like this: Unusual tern-like bird with oversized bill—lower mandible is much longer than upper mandible. Feeds by flying close to surface of water and dipping its lower mandible into the water “skimming” for small fish. Found coastally, especially beaches and sandbars. Barking “yip” calls might clue you in to a flock in flight. All About Birds adds this descriptive information about the Black Skimmer:  A long-winged bird with stark black-and-white plumage, the Black Skimmer has a unique grace as it forages in flight. Skimmers feed by opening the bill and dropping the long, narrow lower mandible into the water, skimming along until they feel a fish. Then they relax the neck, quickly closing their jaws and whipping the fish out of the water. Because they feed by essentially by touch, they can even forage at night. The world’s three species of skimmers are the only birds on earth that feed in this manner.

I spotted my first Black Skimmer on the late morning of April 18, 2021.  I was walking the beach at Quintana and near the Jetty, there was a large group of Laughing Gulls, Royal Terns, and Least Terns.  When I got back home I carefully examined the pictures I took and found 10 Black Skimmers were part of this large group.

This is the large group of birds I saw on the beach at Quintana on April 18, 2021. The Black Skimmers can be seen in the top part of the picture.
In this enlarged version of the above photo, you can clearly see the distinctive bill of the Black Skimmer.


“Cool Facts” About The Black Skimmer From All About Birds: 

  • The distinctive Black Skimmer has many folk names in North America, where it has been called scissor-bill, shearwater, seadog, flood gull, stormgull, razorbill, and cutwater.
  • Although the Black Skimmer is active throughout the day, it is largely crepuscular (active in the dawn and dusk) and even nocturnal. Its use of touch to catch fish lets it be successful in low light or darkness.
  • Possibly the best description of the Black Skimmer’s bounding, head-down foraging style came from the great seabird biologist R. C. Murphy in 1936. He said they look like “unworldly… aerial beagles hot on the scent of aerial rabbits.”
  • At hatching, the upper and lower bill of a young Black Skimmer are equal in length, but by fledging at 4 weeks, the lower mandible is already nearly a half-inch longer than the upper.
  • The oldest recorded Black Skimmer was at least 23 years, 1 month old when it was identified by its band in California in 2013. It had been banded in the same state in 1990.