The skimmers, forming the genusRynchops, are tern-like birds in the familyLaridae. The genus comprises three species found in South Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They were formerly known as the scissorbills.[1]
Description
The three species are the only birds with distinctive uneven bills, where the lower mandible is longer than the upper.[citation needed] This remarkable adaptation allows them to fish in a unique way, flying low and fast over streams.[2] Their lower mandible skims or slices over the water's surface, ready to snap shut any small fish unable to dart clear. The skimmers are sometimes included within the gull family Laridae but separated in other treatments which consider them as a sister group of the terns.[3] The black skimmer has an additional adaptation and is the only species of bird known to have slit-shaped pupils.[4] the forehead, ends of the secondaries, tail feathers and under parts are white, the rest of the plumage is black and the basal half of the bill is crimson.[5] Their bills fall within their field of binocular vision, which enables them to carefully position their bill and capture prey.[6] They are agile in flight and gather in large flocks along rivers and coastal sand banks.[7]
They are tropical and subtropical species which lay 3–6 eggs on sandy beaches. The female incubates the eggs. Because of the species' restricted nesting habitat the three species are vulnerable to disturbance at their nesting sites. One species, the Indian skimmer, is considered endangered by the IUCN due to this as well as destruction and degradation of the lakes and rivers it uses for feeding.[8]
As in later editions of the works of Linnaeus, the correct spelling (from the Greek words ῥύνχος and ὤψ, together meaning "beak-face") should be rhynchops and this is often adopted. However, the misspelling rynchops was the one first published by Linnaeus and continues to be more commonly used.[13] Similarly, the gender of the Greek and Roman words is feminine and the genus was originally treated as such (R. nigra) but Rynchops is now usually treated as a masculine noun (R. niger).
Atlantic coast of North America, and from southern California to Peru in the Pacific, the Amazon basin, Atlantic coast of South America south to central Argentina
Senegal to northern Congo River and southern Nile Valley, southern Tanzania to the Zambezi Valley, and then to KwaZulu-Natal Province (South Africa) and Angola
Pakistan in the Indus river system of Kashmir and northern and central India along the Ganges, Bangladesh and Burma and formerly occurred in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
^Martin, G.R., Rojas, L.M., and McNeil, R. (2007). "Vision and the foraging technique of Skimmers (Rynchopidae)". Ibis. 149 (4): 750–757. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00706.x.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Fusco, P.J. "Connecticut WildlifeArchived 2009-09-14 at the Wayback Machine." Connecticut Department of Environment Protection Bureau of Natural Resources – Wildlife Division. May–June 2006. Accessed 2009-06-29.
^Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Noddies, gulls, terns, auks". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.