BLACK SKIMMER

 

1387                    BLACK SKIMMER                 Rynchops niger

USA               44

The black skimmer is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the skimmer genus Rynchops in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific and Atlantic coasts, but South American populations make only shorter movements in response to annual floods which extend their feeding areas in the river shallows.

Skimmers have a light graceful flight, with steady beats of their long wings. They usually feed in large flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for (in order of importance) small fish, insects, crustaceans and molluscs caught by touch by day or especially at night.

MASKED WOODSWALLOW

Photographed on road to Mornington, Kimberley, Western Australia, May 2015

609         MASKED WOODSWALLOW           Artamus personatus

Australia           (452)

Also called Bluebird, Blue or Bush Martin, and Skimmer. 17.5-19 cm. Found in open forests/woodlands; lightly timbered ranges; sparse inland scrubs; timber on inland watercourses; coastal heaths, pastoral country, farmland, vineyards, golf courses. Range: mainland Australia except far C. York Pen., but mostly inland of Gt Divide, sparse in Kimberley (Q), Top End (NT) C. York (Q). Highly nomadic.

DUSKY WOODSWALLOW

Photographed in Warrumbungle National Park, Coonabarabran, November 2014. A less than clear shot.

317            DUSKY WOODSWALLOW             Artamus cyanopterus

Australia         (275)

Also known as Skimmer, Summer-bird and Woodmartin. 17-18 cm. Range sw WA across to border, all Tasmania and Victoria, bottom third of SA, all NSW except nw corner, se tw-thirds of Queensland from Cooktown down. Found in open forest/woodland, timbered paddocks, coastal/sub-inland scrub, golf-courses and orchards.

Photographed at Warrumbungles, December 2014