|
Rynchops
The skimmers, forming the genus ''Rynchops'', are tern-like birds in the family (Biology), family Laridae. The genus comprises three species found in South Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They were formerly known as the scissorbills. Description The three species are the only birds with distinctive uneven beak, bills, where the lower mandible is longer than the upper mandible, upper. This remarkable adaptation allows them to fish in a unique way, flying low and fast over streams. 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. The black skimmer has an additional adaptation and is the only species of bird known to have slit-shaped pupils. the forehead, ends of the secondaries, tail feathers and under parts are white, the rest of the plumage is black and the basal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Skimmer
The black skimmer (''Rynchops niger'') is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the Rynchops, skimmer genus ''Rynchops'' in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North America, North and South America. Northern populations bird migration, 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. Taxonomy The black skimmer was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1755 in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' and given the binomial name ''Rynchops niger''. The genus name ''Rynchops'' is from the Ancient Greek ῥυvχος/''rhunkhos'' meaning "bill" and κοπτω/''koptō'' meaning "to cut off". The specific ''niger'' is the Latin word for "black". The black skimmer is one of three species in the genus ''Rynchops''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
