R. Niger Skull Replica or Black Skimmer measures 4.7 inches. Black Skimmer Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw).
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.
The R. niger or Black skimmer is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the skimmer genus Rynchops in the gull family Laridae.
R. niger or Black skimmer breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific coasts.
The black skimmer is the largest of the three skimmer species. It measures 16–20 in. long with a 42–50 in. wingspan.
This species ranges from 7.5 to 15.8 oz., with males averaging about 12.3 oz., as compared to the smaller females at 9.0 oz.
The R. niger or Black skimmer basal half of the bill is red, the rest mainly black, and the lower mandible is elongated.
The eye has a dark brown iris and catlike vertical pupil, unique for a bird. The legs are red. The call is a barking kak-kak-kak.
Adults in breeding plumage have a black crown, nape and upper body. The forehead and underparts are white. The upper wings are black with white on the rear edge, and the tail and rump are dark grey with white edges.
The R. niger or Black skimmer breeds in loose groups on sandbanks and sandy beaches in the Americas, the three to seven heavily dark-blotched buff or bluish eggs being incubated by both the male and female.
The chicks leave the nest as soon as they hatch and lie inconspicuously in the nest depression where they are shaded from high temperatures by the parents. They may dig their own depressions in the sand at times.
Parents feed the young almost exclusively during the day with almost no feeding occurring at night, due to the entire population of adults sometimes departing the colony to forage.
Although the R. niger or Black Skimmer is active throughout the day, it is largely crepuscular (active in the dawn and dusk) and even nocturnal. Its use of touch to catch fish lets it be successful in low light or darkness.
Skimmers have a light graceful flight, with steady beats of their long wings. They usually feed in large flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish, insects, crustaceans and molluscs caught by touch by day or especially at night.
Fish prey species include Odontesthes argentinenesis, Brevoortia aurea, Anchoa marinii, Lycengraulis grossidens, Engraulis anchoita, Pomatomus saltatrix, Mugil cephalus, Fundulus heteroclitus, Anchoa mitchilli and Odontesthes incisa.
The oldest recorded Black Skimmer was at least 23 years old when it was identified by its band in California in 2013. It had been banded in the same state in 1990.
