African Skimmer
Rynchops flavirostris
Distinctive tern-like bird with long wings, a short tail, and a bizarre bill in which the upper mandible is shorter than the lower mandible. In slow flight, shows a very white underwing and a white stripe along the back of the upperwing. Feeds by skimming its knife-like lower mandible through the water and snapping up small fish that it makes contact with. Found very locally on sandbars in lakes and rivers. Call is a husky “chep.”
识别特征
African skimmers have long wings, with a black back, hindneck, and crown. The forehead and rest of the body is white, with a bright, long, orange beak that ends with a yellow tip (black tip when immature), hence the specific name flavirostris, "yellow-beak." Their short forked tail is white, and their legs are bright red. The average size is about 38 cm (15 in) long. Their voice is a sharp "kip-kip". Their bill structure is unique; the lower mandible is much longer than the upper mandible, and is flattened sideways like scissor blades.<p>
分类信息
- 学名
- Rynchops flavirostris
- 命名信息
- Vieillot, 1816
- 目
- Charadriiformes
- 科
- Laridae
- 属
- Rynchops
分布与栖息地
The African skimmer is found from Senegal to northern Congo River and southern Nile Valley, southern Tanzania to the Zambezi Valley, and then to KwaZulu-Natal Province (South Africa) and Angola. They live at large tropical rivers with sandbanks for nesting and roosting, lake shores, and coastal lagoons. The African skimmer is generally uncommon and the total populations is estimated at 15,000–25,000 individuals.
- 繁殖区
- AF : tropical African rivers
- 非繁殖区
- to estuaries and lagoons
- 迁徙
- Complete migrants
行为
African skimmers fly in lines over calm waters, and dip their lower mandibles in the water to feed. When the mandible touches a fish, the skimmer snaps its mouth shut. They feed mostly at dawn and dusk and have good night vision. The following fish have been recorded as prey for African skimmers: Micralestes, Tilapia, Barbus, Marcusenius , Hepsetus, Aplocheilichthys and Petrocephalus.<p>African skimmers nest in loose colonies on large sandbanks. The colonies typically consist of less than 50 pairs and each pair lays 2–3 (rarely 4) eggs in a scrape in the sand. Sometimes African skimmer colonies are mixed with those of other sand bank nesting birds such as collared pratincole, pied avocet and white-fronted plover.<p>African skimmers are partial intra-African migrants, they arrive in southern Africa when the water level of rivers starts falling at the beginning of the dry season, i.e. April–June, returning northwards after breeding when rivers start rising again at the start of the rainy season in November–January.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- declining
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Large-billed Antwren
Herpsilochmus longirostris
Small active antwren of the middle to upper levels of woodlands and dry forests. Males are gray with a black cap, a black white-tipped tail, and black wings with white bars. Differs from male of Black-capped Antwren in having gray spots on the otherwise pale breast. Females are very different from Black-capped Antwren in having a rufous head, breast, and belly.
Kauai Amakihi
Chlorodrepanis stejnegeri
An uncommon Hawaiian honeycreeper of forests on Kauai. Males are bright yellow and females are grayer. Larger and thicker-billed than amakihis on other islands. Occurs in native forest above 3,000 feet elevation in the understory and forest canopy where it searches for nectar, insects, and fruit. Song is a trill that does not change in pitch or speed. Call is a nasal “chee.”
Spot-billed Ground-Tyrant
Muscisaxicola maculirostris
Fairly small and drab terrestrial flycatcher of open rocky and stony slopes and valleys, and adjacent agricultural terraces in the Andes; also locally in desert lowlands mainly in winter. Virtual absence of field marks is a field mark: plumage unrelieved by strong contrast or color. Best told from other ground-tyrants by small size, faint dusky breast streaking, relatively short wings, and much stronger song. Also note yellow base of bill that is visible at close range.
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