Skimmers
Black Skimmer
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Charadriiformes Family: Rhynchopidae Bonaparte, 1838 Genus: Rhynchops Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Black Skimmer (Rhynchops niger) African Skimmer (Rhynchops flavirostris) Indian Skimmer (Rhynchops albicollis)

The Skimmers, Rhynchopidae, are a small family of tern-like birds in the order Charadriiformes, which also includes the waders, gulls and auks. The family is comprised of three species found in South Asia, Africa, and the Americas. black skimmer public domain USFWS File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... “Animalia” redirects here. ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... “Aves” redirects here. ... Families Thinocoridae Pedionomidae Scolopacidae Rostratulidae Jacanidae Chionididae Burhinidae Haematopodidae Recurvirostridae Ibidorhynchidae Charadriidae Pluvianellidae Dromadidae Glareolidae Stercorariidae Rhynchopidae Laridae Sternidae Alcidae Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. ... Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte (May 24, 1803 – July 29, 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithologist. ... Carl Linnaeus, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707[1] – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[2] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... Binomial name Rynchops niger Linnaeus, 1758 The Black Skimmer Rynchops niger is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar bird species in the skimmer family. ... Binomial name Rynchops flavirostris Vieillot, 1816 The African Skimmer (Rynchops flavirostris) is a skimmer that lives in Senegal to nothern Congo River and southern Nile Valley, southern Tanzania to the Zambezi Valley, and then to Natal and Angola. ... Indian Skimmer can refer to: Indian Skimmer (bird), see Skimmer Indian Skimmer (horse), thoroughbred racehorse Category: ... Skimmer can refer to Skimmer, a tern-like bird in the order Charadriiformes, which also includes the waders, gulls and auks. ... Genera Sterna (Gelochelidon) (Hydroprogne) (Thalasseus) Chlidonias Phaetusa Anous Procelsterna Gygis Larosterna Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily Sterninae of the gull family Laridae. ... “Aves” redirects here. ... Families Scolopacidae Rostratulidae Jacanidae Thinocoridae Pedionomidae Burhinidae Chionididae Pluvianellidae Ibidorhynchidae Recurvirostridae Haematopodidae Charadriidae Dunlin (Calidris alpina). ... Look up gull in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Genera Uria Alle Alca Pinguinus Synthliboramphus Cepphus Brachyramphus Ptychoramphus Aethia Cerorhinca Fratercula Extinct genera, see Systematics Auks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. ... Map of South Asia (see note on Kashmir). ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1], Central America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ...

The three species have an elongated lower mandible. They feed by flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish.

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 vulnerable by the IUCN due to this as well as destruction and degradation of the lakes and rivers it uses for feeding. The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive. ... The World Conservation Union or International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. ...

See Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for an alternative classification. The genus name Rynchops is often spelled Rhynchops (as in some of the later editions of the works of Linnaeus), though the first version is taxonomically valid, being Linnaeus's original spelling. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. ... Carl Linnaeus, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707[1] – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[2] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ...

References

• BirdLife International (2007) Species factsheet: Rynchops albicollis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/5/2007

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Rhynchopidae

• Skimmer videos on the Internet Bird Collection