Indian Skimmer
Encyclopedia
The Indian Skimmer is a one of the three species that belong to the skimmer
family. They are somewhat tern like but like other skimmers, have a short upper mandible and the longer lower mandible that is ploughed along the surface of water as the bird flies over the water to pick aquatic prey. It is found in southern Asia
where it is patchily-distributed and declining in numbers. They are mainly found in rivers or estuaries. They are very brightly marked in black, white and orange making them difficult to miss.
is orange with a yellow tip and, like the other skimmers, has a lower mandible
which is longer than the upper mandible. The legs and feet are red. The lower bill is knife like and flexible and the tip appears truncated. Young birds have bills that appear normal and with age the lower mandible grows. The upper mandible is capable of considerable mobility.
Non-breeding adults are duller and browner than breeding birds. Juveniles
are grey-brown above with pale fringes to the feathers on the back and wings. The head has more white than in adult birds and the bill is orange-brown with a dark tip.
It has a high, nasal, screaming kyap-kyap call but is usually very silent.
The Black Skimmer
of the Americas
is larger with a black tip to the bill. The African Skimmer
is smaller with more black in the tail and no white collar. In older times the Indian Skimmer was also known as the Indian Scissors-bill.
Its range has become increasingly fragmented in recent decades. It is still found in parts of Pakistan
in the Indus river system of Kashmir
and northern and central India
along the Ganges, Bangladesh
and Burma and formerly occurred in Laos
, Cambodia
and Vietnam
. It is a scarce non-breeding visitor to Nepal
and has occurred as a vagrant in Oman
and central Thailand
with old records from Iran
and China
. They are more widespread in winter and are found in coastal estuaries of western and eastern India.
Breeding colonies are known from the Chambal river area, an area that is of importance for the Gharial
. Sand banks are important for the nesting of Gharials.
but also take small crustacean
s and insect
larva
e. They often feed at dusk and can be very nocturnal.
The breeding season is mainly March and May. They breed in colonies of up to 40 pairs, often with terns and other birds. The nest
is a simple scrape on the ground mainly on open sand banks that provide unobstructed views of any oncoming predators. The eggs are buff or white with brown blotches and streaks. There are three to five eggs in a clutch. The birds tend to incubate the eggs more during the cooler hours of the day and are often away from the nest during the hotter parts of the day. Incubating adults are said to indulge in belly-soaking behaviour to cool the eggs. A bird at nest was once observed to pick up (and drop into water) an intruding chick of a River Tern
using its leg.
by the IUCN. It is threatened by habitat loss and degradation, pollution and disturbance by humans. Most colonies are unprotected but some lie within nature reserves such as National Chambal (Gharial) Wildlife Sanctuary
in India.
Skimmer
The Skimmers, Rynchopidae, are a small family of tern-like birds in the order Charadriiformes, which also includes the waders, gulls and auks. The family comprises three species found in South Asia, Africa, and the Americas....
family. They are somewhat tern like but like other skimmers, have a short upper mandible and the longer lower mandible that is ploughed along the surface of water as the bird flies over the water to pick aquatic prey. It is found in southern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
where it is patchily-distributed and declining in numbers. They are mainly found in rivers or estuaries. They are very brightly marked in black, white and orange making them difficult to miss.
Description
This bird has a black cap and orange bill that contrasts with the white body. With its long wings it looks tern like and is about 40–43 cm long with a wingspan of 108 cm. The upper parts of the body are dark black and the underparts are white. The black cap on the head leaves the forehead and nape white. The wings are long and pointed with a white trailing edge. The short, forked tail is white with blackish central feathers. The long, thick billBeak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
is orange with a yellow tip and, like the other skimmers, has a lower mandible
Mandible
The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...
which is longer than the upper mandible. The legs and feet are red. The lower bill is knife like and flexible and the tip appears truncated. Young birds have bills that appear normal and with age the lower mandible grows. The upper mandible is capable of considerable mobility.
Non-breeding adults are duller and browner than breeding birds. Juveniles
Juvenile (organism)
A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...
are grey-brown above with pale fringes to the feathers on the back and wings. The head has more white than in adult birds and the bill is orange-brown with a dark tip.
It has a high, nasal, screaming kyap-kyap call but is usually very silent.
The Black Skimmer
Black Skimmer
The Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar birds species in the skimmer family. It breeds in North and South America...
of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
is larger with a black tip to the bill. The African Skimmer
African Skimmer
The African Skimmer is a skimmer that lives in Senegal to northern Congo River and southern Nile Valley, southern Tanzania to the Zambezi Valley, and then to Natal and Angola.- Appearance :...
is smaller with more black in the tail and no white collar. In older times the Indian Skimmer was also known as the Indian Scissors-bill.
Habitat and distribution
It is found on large rivers and lakes, swamps and coastal wetlands such as estuaries. It is most common on freshwater, particularly during the breeding season. Breeding colonies are on islands or sandy spits, usually in rivers.Its range has become increasingly fragmented in recent decades. It is still found in parts of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in the Indus river system of Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and northern and central India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
along the Ganges, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Burma and formerly occurred in Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It is a scarce non-breeding visitor to Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and has occurred as a vagrant in Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
and central Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
with old records from Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. They are more widespread in winter and are found in coastal estuaries of western and eastern India.
Breeding colonies are known from the Chambal river area, an area that is of importance for the Gharial
Gharial
The gharial , , also called Indian gavial or gavial, is the only surviving member of the once well-represented family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodilians with long, slender snouts...
. Sand banks are important for the nesting of Gharials.
Behaviour
The birds forage for food by flying low over the water with the bill open and the lower mandible skimming through the water. When a fish is encountered, it moves up the lower mandible and the bird raises the upper mandible and snaps it with a movement of the head. They forage in small flocks and often associate with terns. They feed mainly on fishFish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
but also take small crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e. They often feed at dusk and can be very nocturnal.
The breeding season is mainly March and May. They breed in colonies of up to 40 pairs, often with terns and other birds. The nest
Nest
A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building...
is a simple scrape on the ground mainly on open sand banks that provide unobstructed views of any oncoming predators. The eggs are buff or white with brown blotches and streaks. There are three to five eggs in a clutch. The birds tend to incubate the eggs more during the cooler hours of the day and are often away from the nest during the hotter parts of the day. Incubating adults are said to indulge in belly-soaking behaviour to cool the eggs. A bird at nest was once observed to pick up (and drop into water) an intruding chick of a River Tern
River Tern
The River Tern is a river in Shropshire, England. It rises north-east of Market Drayton in the north of the county. The source of the Tern is considered to be the lake in the grounds of Maer Hall, Staffordshire...
using its leg.
Conservation
The species was formerly widely distributed in the rivers of the Indian subcontinent and along the river systems of Myanmar and Mekong. Records from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are mainly from the 19th century and recent records are rare. The population is now mainly within India and Pakistan and is estimated to be about 6,000-10,000 individuals. The decreasing population has led it to being classed as VulnerableVulnerable species
On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...
by the IUCN. It is threatened by habitat loss and degradation, pollution and disturbance by humans. Most colonies are unprotected but some lie within nature reserves such as National Chambal (Gharial) Wildlife Sanctuary
National Chambal (Gharial) Wildlife Sanctuary
National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected area for critically endangered Gharial Crocodiles and the Red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges River Dolphin. Located near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, North India...
in India.