Black Skimmers are delightful to watch as they hunt for food. True to their name, they skim along the water with their lower mandible knifing the water until they get a fish to snap up, or actually the top one snapping down. This delightful day, I met a photographer who works at the Cape and we had a great day of shooting at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with some Skimmers repeatedly flying by us.
Black Skimmer fishing at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
They lose a bit of grace when standing on the beach. Black Skimmer's feathers were among those prized in the 19th Century hat craze and approached extinction.
Black Skimmers on the beach
This one is showing off the Skimmer's unusual lower mandible that is much longer than the upper one.
Black Skimmer and Royal Terns
But I had no idea how knife-like their mandible is until this one scratched its head and gave a view from the top.
Black Skimmer's knife-like mandible