Чёрная крачка (Rynchops niger): описание, распространение и подвиды.

Species of bird

The black skimmer (Rynchops niger) is a tern like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the skimmer genus Rynchops in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North and South America. Northern populations winter in the warmer waters of the Caribbean and the tropical and subtropical Pacific and Atlantic coasts, but South American populations make only shorter movements in response to annual floods which extend their feeding areas in the river shallows.

The black skimmer was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1755 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and given the binomial name Rynchops niger. The genus name Rynchops is from the Ancient Greek ῥυvχος/rhunkhos meaning "bill" and κοπτω/koptō meaning "to cut off". The specific niger is the Latin word for "black". The black skimmer is one of three species in the genus Rynchops. Image Subspecies Description DistributionR. n. niger (Linnaeus, 1758) migratory, breeds on the Atlantic coast of North America, and from southern California to Ecuador in the PacificR. n. cinerascens (von Spix, 1825) is larger, has dusky underwings, only narrow white fringe to its black tail breeds in northern and northeastern South America and the Amazon basinR. n. intercedens (Saunders, 1895) occurs on the rest of the Atlantic coast of South America south to central Argentina

The black skimmer is the largest of the three skimmer species. It measures long with a wingspan. This species ranges from , with males averaging about , as compared to the smaller females The basal half of the bill is red, the rest mainly black, and the lower mandible is much 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 underwing colour varies from white to dusky grey depending on region.

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 (in order of importance) small fish, insects, crustaceans and molluscs caught by touch by day or especially at night. and Odontesthes incisa.