Black Skimmer

Hurricane Brings Black Skimmers

Black Skimmers

 Hurricane Dorian brought some amazing species of birds to Nova Scotia.  A few also showed up in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island but the bulk of them landed east of Halifax.  One species that was amazing was the Black Skimmer which appeared in large numbers, more than 200!  Shown above is a flock of Black Skimmers.  Unfortunately the photo was taken in South Carolina but it shows what a flock of skimmers looks like.  It is typical of what was seen along the shorelines of NS when they arrived.  I was lucky to see a flock of 21 Black Skimmers on a trip to Chezzetcook recently.  I was scanning over the marsh looking for shorebirds when a flock of 21 skimmers flew in.  What an amazing sight for Nova Scotia!  They stayed around for an hour or so moving periodically from one site to another but still in view.  They were a long way out so no good photos were possible hence the substitute photos.  I did not think I would ever see a flock of Black Skimmers flying over marshes in the Maritimes.  There have been accidental arrivals of Black Skimmers to New Brunswick over the years, almost always after severe storms.  They have appeared in small numbers or as singles in Grand Manan (1879, 1924, 1944),  and in Saint John (2019).

Black Skimmer

The Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) is about the size of a crow.  It is a member of a subfamily of Laridae (gulls and terns), sharing its  subfamily with terns and noddys.  It is unique in its foraging style, flying over the surface of the water slicing the surface with its lower mandible, closing its beak on any food it encounters.  Its preferred food items are shrimp and fish.

Black Skimmers are 46 cm/18 in long.  Their mainly black and white body is long and their head and beak are large.  Their bright orange legs are short.  The crown, nape and back are solid black and that contrasts sharply with the white forehead, lores, foreneck and underparts.  The unusual beak is orange with a black tip.  The tail is mainly white with a black central strip.  In flight the wings show a white trailing edge.  Juvenile skimmers show the black grayed out.

Black Skimmer Adult Attending Young [Internet Photo]

Black Skimmers breed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachusetts to Florida and Texas.  They spend their winters from southern California and Virginia south to Central and South America.  Their nest is a scrape in the sand among the vegetation of gravelly bars, beaches and shallow bays.  They lay four or five blue or pink eggs spotted with brown, lavender or gray.  Both adults incubate the eggs.

Black Skimmers

Black Skimmers are the only avian species in North America with the lower mandible larger than the upper.  When the young hatch, the mandibles are the same length.  The lower mandible grows quickly and it is already longer than the upper by the time the young fledge at four weeks of age.

The Black Skimmer population is threatened by coastal development and increased use of shorelines and beaches by human traffic.  They face the same threats as all our shorebirds.  Some of the other species shown in the photos above include Laughing Gulls, Willets, Royal Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Forster's Terns and Ruddy Turnstones.  See if you can find them.