Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer

Rynchops niger

Max Weber Causeway

Titusville, FL

 

I love these guys. They are comical. Like other birds I saw in Florida, they are perfectly designed to do what they do. From The Birds of North American Online:

 

The Black Skimmer, one of North America’s most distinctive coastal waterbirds, is noted for its unusual voice, bill, and feeding behavior. Its bill—brightly colored, laterally compressed, and knife-like, with the lower mandible extending beyond the maxilla—is uniquely adapted to catch small fish in shallow water. A feeding skimmer flies low over the water with its bill open and its lower mandible slicing the surface. When the mandible touches a fish, the upper bill (maxilla) snaps down instantly to catch it.

 

How cool is that?

 

Thanks for all your comments and faves!

 

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