Black Skimmer
Rynchops niger
Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers
Photo: Joshua J. Cotten · Unsplash · Unsplash License (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1 · call, flight call
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Black Skimmer
Unusual tern-like bird with oversized bill—lower mandible is much longer than upper mandible. Feeds by flying close to surface of water and dipping its lower mandible into the water "skimming" for small fish. Found coastally, especially beaches and sandbars. Barking "yip" calls might clue you in to a flock in flight.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 42 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Argentina
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Caribbean Netherlands
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- French Guiana
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Namibia
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin (French part)
- South Africa
- Suriname
- Trinidad and Tobago
- United States
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
