Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

My only sighting of this peculiar species was along the Tuichi River, so I never saw it hunting.

Its peculiar beak is used as a kind of fishing rod, and it flies close enough to the water surface for the mandible, or lower beak, to be sufficiently submerged so that it will hit fish in the surface layer of the water. When that happens the beak is is quickly shut.

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Last updated on 1 January 2013