Skimmer

[Sparkie1263]

I have been fishing my whole life and neves seen one of these.

[dogtrombone]

That beak looks like the bird bought it at a joke shop... a Groucho Marx nose for birds!

[rAyVoLvEz]

how do u ever get so close to a bird?

i admire all these close up animal shots you take and well, am envious at the amount of variety of birds u have there.

i only have crows, ugly fat grey pigeons and some yellow beak black birds here.

[Sparkie1263]

Most of the time I don't even have to get out of the car. The skimmers were in a parking lot near the dock by the bay.
Thanks Frank

[dogtrombone]

Now I'm assuming that this bird flies across the water and "skims" off insects etc from the water surface? Which would account for the beak being shaped the way it is... ah, evolution is fascinating! It's wing and tail shape appears similar to the swallow or swift, which also feeds in flight... nature sure is interesting.

[grunner30]

Yeah it's when you get out of the inoquous car that they take off (unless they are fed regularly by tourists). You got it dogtrombone. They have a build somewhere between a kite , a tern, and a gull, and they catch small baitfish skimming the surface in flight.

Wade