Archive for 'Rynchopidae'

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

The breeding season is over, and only a few of the species remain. This couple had two juveniles practicing fishing and will likely leave this sandbank in the next few days. In a couple of weeks this sandbank will be submerged, and fish dispersed as the river will become a huge wetland and make fishing […]

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

The dry season is overtaken by the water, and the rivers are swelling day by day. Slowly the many sandbanks will be submerged and with them many birds relying on them will have a different landscape and a food supply that is harder to come by. In the dry season these sandbanks are full of […]

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)

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 […]