Thursday, July 16, 2009

Black Skimmer.





Black Skimmers can be found all along the Americas. They breed in the northern hemisphere, and migrate down to the south during fall and winter.

As you can guess from the pictures, I would hope, they are named for their behavior of skimming for fish. They have a large lower mandible (see last picture) that drags in the water. When it hits something, it flinches its neck down and closes its beak, hoping to catch something.

What's nice about it is, from an observation perspective, a lot of animals are hard to see performing certain behaviors. These, however, are pretty much seen always doing this, so it's fun to watch.

If you ever get a chance, take a boat out on the Atlantic coast of the Eastern Shore and watch them go to town.

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