A number of blacks and white adult birds stand and lay in sand and tufts of grass. They have thick pointed orange beaks with black tips. Among them there are several light grey soeckled fluffy chicks.

One of the speckly gray chicks with a white belly and a tan beak snuggles up to (presumably) mom. It’s impossibly cute.

An adult skimmer uses its long beak. To feed its fluffy chick a rather large fish. You can see here how much longer the bottom part of the beak of the adult is. Also, though it doesn’t look possible here, the chick did eat the whole fish!

And adult stands by a tuft of grass while its tiny fluffy chick looks up at it. Other adults are sleeping on the sand.

I went to a beach in Sarasota which is a protected nesting area for our #BlackSkimmer friends. Perfect for @robcrank68.bsky.social’s #BirdOfTheDay theme of #AdultsWithChicks! Bring on those babies! #birds #WildlifePhotography #ECK

A beautiful black and white and orange beaked bird flies low over the water surface. Its reflection is revealed below.

🪶Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #reflection
#wildlifephotography
#Birds
#blackskimmer

📸 Brian
@balail.bsky.social

Two white-over-black seabirds with peculiar asymmetric orange, black-tipped bills fly low in close formation over water.

#DailyBird 🤖
Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), 9th May 2024
es: Rayador Americano, fr: Bec-en-ciseaux Noir
Prime Hook NWR, Broadkill Hundred, Delaware
Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 @ 800mm, 30% crop, 1/400s, f/10, ISO 160
#Birds #BlackSkimmer #BLSK #Gulls #BirdOfTheDay

#EastCoastKin #BlueSkyPhotography #PhotographersofBluesky
#BirdOfTheDay theme of #BirdsInTheirElement #Seabird #LaughingGull #BlackSkimmer

A stranger in our midst…

A beautiful black and white bird skims along the water surface with its beak open drawing a straight line while hunting for its next meal.

#BirdsInTheirElement
#blackskimmer #wildlifephotography
#naturephotography #EastCoastKin #birds
#fotosbyfaj #faj365challenge2026

365 Challenge No.2 2026 - Publish a photo each day on a weekly topic
Week 8 (Leading Lines) -
Traced on the water's surface #2...

📸 Brian @balail.bsky.social

For #TwosDay I present this #BlackSkimmer pair working in tandem to (successfully!) secure snacks. #birds #photography #EastCoastKin

Black Skimmer colony passes overhead before landing on an empty spot of beach.

Blue Skies and Black Skimmers. Passing overhead, a colony comes in for a landing.
#BlueskyMonday
#Wildlife
#Birds
#BlackSkimmer

Blade Over Water "The image captures a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) in a moment of exquisite precision and grace. The bird is mid-flight, wings outstretched like twin blades slicing through the air—long, narrow, and sharply angled, with black upperparts and white undersides that shimmer against the rippled water below. Its most striking feature, the vivid orange-and-black bill, is open just enough for the elongated lower mandible to skim the water’s surface. This feeding technique—unique among North American birds—creates a subtle wake, a liquid signature trailing behind the bird like a calligraphic stroke. The water itself is textured with gentle ripples, reflecting soft light and movement, while the skimmer’s reflection flickers faintly beneath it. The bird’s head is slightly tilted downward, eyes focused, body taut with purpose. The composition is symmetrical and dynamic, emphasizing motion, balance, and the quiet drama of survival. The watermark “© Swede’s Photographs” rests unobtrusively in the top left corner, a quiet nod to the witness behind the lens." - Microsoft Copilot

Good morning. 🌊🐚🪸

18 January 2026

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, ...

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#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #morning #shorebird #BlackSkimmer #clutter

A pair of Black Skimmers fly like fighter jets, just above the shallow surface with their bright white areas glowing a bit during “golden hour”

One of the Skimmers dips its lower bill into the shallow water, creating a”zipper” in the water’s surface. To me Skimmers look like weirdly evolved giant terns. I think they look like they don’t have eyes because their dark eyes are hiding in the black areas of their heads

For today’s #BlackAndWhite prompt I’m dipping into the archives for a couple of #BlackSkimmer shots

Skimmers are one of my #favorite #birds here in #CoastalGeorgia — they are so elegant when they buzz by with their extra-long lower bill just dipped into the receding surf

See ALT for a bit more

black and white birds
#BirdOfTheDay
#BlackAndWhite
#blackheadedgull
#blackskimmer
#chickadee
#beltedkingfisher
#birds
#nature
#topsailisland
#photography

Already started my top 10 bird observations in earlier post, now my favorite 10 photos of 2025! It was hard choosing! So first will be 2 posts of honorable mentions. #GreaterFlamingo, #Monarch, #BlackSkimmer, and #AilianthusWebwormMoth.
#EastCoastKin #birds #nature
#insects #naturephotography

This cool bird reminds me of a toucan but he's actually a black skimmer.
#birds #blackskimmer #nature #palmbeach #florida

"A lone Black Skimmer slices through the air just above a shimmering body of water, its wings stretched wide like twin blades of obsidian. The bird’s upper body is cloaked in sleek black feathers, while its underbelly glows white, catching the light like polished bone. Its most striking feature—a long, knife-like bill—is painted in bold red and black, with the lower half extending beyond the upper, poised like a blade ready to skim the surface. The skimmer’s flight is purposeful and elegant, its body taut with aerodynamic grace. The background is a soft blur of rippling water, rendered in muted blues and silvers, allowing the bird’s dramatic form to dominate the frame. The wings curve upward in mid-stroke, casting a shadow of motion and intent. There’s a sense of quiet urgency, as if the bird is threading the seam between sky and water, searching for sustenance with ritual precision. In the lower corner, the name “© Swede's Photographs” is etched discreetly, a signature of witness to this fleeting, sovereign moment." - Microsoft Copilot

Black Skimmer Flight

Here is a black skimmer (Rynchops niger) flying above water at Gulfport, Mississippi.

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#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #shorebird #BlackSkimmer

#birds
#Birdphotography
#nature
#naturephotography
#birdinflightphotography
#Blackskimmer

"A black skimmer glides low over a gently rippled body of water, its wings outstretched like twin blades of shadow and light. The bird’s plumage is starkly divided—inky black above, pure white below—creating a visual tension that echoes its threshold-defying flight. Its beak is a brilliant orange, almost glowing against the muted tones of the water, and its lower mandible slices through the surface like a scalpel of intention. This feeding act is not frantic—it is deliberate, sovereign. The skimmer’s lower jaw, longer than the upper, is submerged just enough to graze the water, seeking fish by feel. Its reflection shimmers below, slightly distorted by the ripples, as if the bird is flying in two realms at once: the air above and the mirrored world below. The legs, also orange, trail behind like ceremonial tassels, barely visible in the motion. The water itself is calm but alive, textured with soft waves that respond to the skimmer’s passage. No splash, no chaos—just a quiet incision across the surface, a moment of anatomical precision and mythic grace. This is not merely a bird feeding. It is a sovereign act of Tactical Spectacle, a ballet of adaptation, a dispatch from the Ministry of Threshold Navigation" - Microsoft Cop

Skimming the Divide

Here’s a photo of a black skimmer (Rynchops niger) gliding low over the shallows in search of food. ...

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#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #BlackSkimmer

#Birdoftheday is #flying. Hope everybody manages to fit some excellent birding into their weekend! 🪶
#flyday
#birding
#photography
#heron
#greatblueheron
#laughinggull
#blackskimmer
#flight

Black Skimmers
SE Georgia, 4.26.25
#blackskimmer #birdphotography #birdingphotography #birding

Up close & personal with a Black Skimmer
#birds #wildlife #photography #audubon #nature #naturephotography #birdnerd #wildlife #natgeowild #bbcwildlife #bbcearth #birdsofbluesky #birdphotography #blueskyartshow #planetbirds #photography #birdwatching #bestbirdshots #blackskimmer

#wildlife #wildlifephotography #bird #birdphotography #nature #naturephotography #blackskimmer #photography

#birds
#Birdphotography
#birdinflightphotography
#nature
#naturephotography
#Blackskimmer

A large, long-winged seabird swoops low over water, its open, scissor-like orange bill cutting the surface of the water as it passes by a white, heron-like bird.

#DailyBird 🤖
Black Skimmer & Great Egret (Rynchops niger), 9th May 2024
es: Rayador Americano, fr: Bec-en-ciseaux Noir
Prime Hook NWR, Broadkill Hundred, Delaware
Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 @ 800mm, 15% crop, 1/400s, f/10, ISO 200
#Birds #BlackSkimmer #BLSK #Gulls

#BlackSkimmer flying at dusk. 🪶📷🌿

#birdguide #tourguide #natureguide #birdphotography #birding #birds #birder #birdwatching #letsgobirding #birdinflight #californiabirds #sunset

a black skimmer skimming for fish.

A black skimmer skimming for fish. #skimmer #blackskimmer #NikonZ9 #wildlife

🌎 Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) The Black Skimmer is a medium-sized seabird with a striking black and white appearance and a unique, bright red-and-black bill where the lower mandible is significantly longer than the upper. They are distributed along the coasts and large rivers of South and eastern North America. Skimmers are social birds that nest in colonies. They have a distinctive foraging behavior, flying low over the water with their lower bill "skimming" the surface to catch small fish by touch, often at dawn, dusk, or even at night. 2.5 Flash (Edited) Three subspecies are recognised. Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) 📷: Photo by Beto_MdP via Pixabay https://pixabay.com/photos/birds-waterfowl-american-skimmer-7469432/ RZXV

New Addition! 🌎 Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) #SouthAmericanBirds #NorthAmericanBirds | #BlackSkimmer #RynchopsNiger | #Skimmers #GullFamily #Shorebirds #Seabirds 📷: Photo by Beto_MdP🦜 #MyBirdcards | #birdsoftheworld #birds

A black skimmer feed a fish to a baby chick. #blackskimmer #NikonZ9 #wildlife

youtu.be/YnMtSiXPKaY

#birds
#Birdphotography
#birdinflightphotography
#nature
#naturephotography
#wildlifephotography
#Blackskimmer

These are my watercolor paintings of some black skimmer birds that I was inspired to paint after seeing a flock nesting at Navarre Beach, FL. fineartamerica.com/featured/bla...
#mattstarrfineart #art #giftidea #blackskimmer #blackskimmers #bird #birds #sea #island #Florida #NavarreBeach #chick

#birds
#Birdphotography
#nature
#naturephotography
#birdinflightphotography
#wildlifephotography
#Blackskimmer

Two strange, narrow-winged seabirds bank in low formation above gray water. Each is black above, white-below, and has a long, black-tipped, traffic-cone-orange bill.

#DailyBird 🤖
Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), 9th May 2024
es: Rayador Americano, fr: Bec-en-ciseaux Noir
Prime Hook NWR, Broadkill Hundred, Delaware
Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 @ 800mm, 35% crop, 1/400s, f/10, ISO 160
#Birds #BlackSkimmer #BLSK #Gulls #HopeIsTheThingWithFeathers

#birds
#Birdphotography
#birdinflightphotography
#nature
#naturephotography
#blackskimmer