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Information about Skimmer

Skimmers
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Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Rhynchopidae
Bonaparte, 1838
Genus:Rhynchops
Linnaeus, 1758
Species


The Skimmers, Rhynchopidae, are a small family of tern-like birds in the order Charadriiformes, which also includes the waders, gulls and auks. The family is comprised of three species found in South Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

The three species have an elongated lower mandible. They feed by flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish.

They are tropical and subtropical species which lay 3-6 eggs on sandy beaches. The female incubates the eggs. Because of the species' restricted nesting habitat the three species are vulnerable to disturbance at their nesting sites. One species, the Indian Skimmer, is considered vulnerable by the IUCN due to this as well as destruction and degradation of the lakes and rivers it uses for feeding.

See Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for an alternative classification. The genus name Rynchops is often spelled Rhynchops (as in some of the later editions of the works of Linnaeus), though the first version is taxonomically valid, being Linnaeus's original spelling.

References

External links

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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Charles Lucien (Carlo) Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (May 24, 1803 – July 29, 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithologist. He was the son of Lucien Bonaparte and nephew of Emperor Napoleon.
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Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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R. niger

Binomial name
Rynchops niger
Linnaeus, 1758

The Black Skimmer Rynchops niger is a tern-like seabird, one of three very similar bird species in the skimmer family.
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R. flavirostris

Binomial name
Rynchops flavirostris
Vieillot, 1816

The African Skimmer (Rynchops flavirostris
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R. albicollis

Binomial name
Rynchops albicollis
Swainson, 1838

Synonyms
Rhynchops albicollis

The Indian Skimmer (Rynchops albicollis
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Sternidae
Bonaparte, 1838

Genera
  • Anous
  • Procelsterna
  • Gygis
  • Onychoprion
  • Sternula
  • Phaetusa
  • Hydroprogne
  • Gelochelidon

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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadrii

Families
  • Ibidorhynchidae
  • Recurvirostridae
  • Haematopodidae
  • Charadriidae
Waders, called shorebirds in North America (where "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons), are members
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Laridae
Vigors, 1825

Genera

Larus
Rissa
Pagophila
Rhodostethia
Xema
Creagus

Gulls are birds in the family Laridae.
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AUK is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • Audax UK, a cycling organisation
  • American University in Kosovo, part of the Rochester Institute of Technology
  • alt.usenet.

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South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is a southern geopolitical region of the Asian continent comprising territories on and in proximity to the Indian subcontinent. It is surrounded by (from west to east) Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeastern Asia.
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.
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Vulnerable may refer to:
  • Vulnerability
  • Vulnerable species

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The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990).
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Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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