It’s not unusual to see Black Skimmers at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, but it’s unusual to not be entertained by their stunning feeding maneuvers.
These strange-looking birds with their big – and thin – orange and black beaks swoop down and glide across the water with mouths open, trying to catch minnows or other food for meals. They create their own wakes as they “skim” through the water.
It was very cloudy on my most recent visit to MINWR, but several Black Skimmers put on entertaining shows at a couple of locations along Black Point Wildlife Drive.
One Black Skimmer got so carried away with its skimming that it almost tried to scoop up an alligator. (See below)
Fortunately for the skimmer, it passed just over the back of the annoyed-looking alligator’s head.
Here are a couple of fun facts about Black Skimmers, courtesy the great website AllAboutBirds.org:
- The distinctive Black Skimmer has many folk names in North America, where it has been called scissor-bill, shearwater, seadog, flood gull, stormgull, razorbill, and cutwater.
- Possibly the best description of the Black Skimmer’s bounding, head-down foraging style came from the great seabird biologist R. C. Murphy in 1936. He said they look like “unworldly… aerial beagles hot on the scent of aerial rabbits.”
I hope you enjoy some of my photos of these so-called “razorbills” or “aerial beagles.” I know I enjoyed taking them.
