Black Skimmers Adult and Chick

by Paul Rebmann

Title

Black Skimmers Adult and Chick

Artist

Paul Rebmann

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

An adult black skimmer and a 25 day old chick walking on Daytona Beach in Florida. This image was made the same day as the award-winning photograph titled Homer and Bart and features the same chick.

This image has been featured in the following groups:
A Birding Group - Wings (09/02/2015),
Coastal Water Birds-Shore Birds (08/31/2015) &
Scenes From A Beach (08/30/2015)

Black skimmers are the only North American bird with a lower mandible longer than the upper. Primarily found in coastal areas of Central and North America, as far north as the Salton Sea near San Diego on the west coast and Massachusetts on the east coast in the summer. They occur through much of South America except in the Andes range and most of the North American breeding occurs along the gulf coast.
Black skimmers are easily identified by the distinctive beak, plus they are white underneath and dark on top. The black crown continues down the back of the neck when in breeding plumage (Mar.-Sep.), and they have a white color during the non-breeding season (Sep.-Mar.).
These birds are graceful flyers with wingbeats mostly above the body with the head held lower than the tail. Skimmers glide just above the water with the lower mandible dipped in the water. When the skimmer encounters a fish, the bird tucks the head down to grab it. They often rest on the ground completely prone with the head stretched forward.
(Species description from the artist's Wild Florida Photo website www.wildflphoto.com)

Uploaded

August 30th, 2015

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