From Opus

Photo by bobsofpa
Fort Island Gulf Beach, Crystal River, Florida, March 2009

Rynchops niger

[edit] Identification:

18" (46 cm)

• Black above
• White below
• Red legs
• Bill red with black tip like a blade. Lower mandible much longer, than the upper
  

Immature mottled upper appearance, with shorter bill.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds along Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachusetts and Long Island to Florida and Texas. Winters north to southern California and Virginia. Also in American tropics.

Photo by Nick Richter
San Diego Creek, Irvine, California, May 2004,

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

There are 3 subspecies:

• R. n. niger :

• Coastal US and Mexico; winters to Panama

• R. n. cinerascens:

• Coasts and rivers of northern South America to Bolivia and north-western Argentina

• R. n. intercedens:

• Eastern Brazil to Paraguay, Uruguay and north-eastern Argentina

[edit] Habitat

Breeds chiefly on sandbars and beaches; feeds in shallow bays, inlets, and estuaries.

[edit] Behaviour

Tight flocks can be seen simultaneously wheeling in one direction and then another.

[edit] Diet

They are mainly surface skimmers (hence the name) tip of the lower mandible cuts through the water. They will also wade in shallow water, jabbing at the fish.

[edit] Breeding

3 or 4 brown-blotched buff eggs on bare sand, usually among shell fragments and scattered grass clumps.

They are particularly attracted to the newly-dredged sand-fill areas, which may contain colonies of up to 200 pairs. These sites will be abandoned as soon as too much grass appears.

[edit] Vocalisation

Short barking notes.

[edit] Reference

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. eNature

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• Arthur Grosset's Birds