{"id":9177,"date":"2013-08-10T03:45:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T09:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=9177"},"modified":"2026-04-16T12:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:19:11","slug":"nonbreeding-black-skimmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/10\/nonbreeding-black-skimmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonbreeding Plumage Black Skimmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BlackBlack Skimmer in nonbreeding plumage – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 310mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I did my post the other day on “Missing Fort De Soto<\/span><\/a>” I found this Black Skimmer image in my archives while looking for photos to put in that post and wanted to share it.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t edited it and I don’t think I have ever posted a Black Skimmer in nonbreeding plumage, this one looks a bit tattered but it is in molt.<\/p>\n

The back of the neck is now white but a few weeks after I took this image the neck would have been as dark as the feathers on the skimmer’s head.<\/p>\n

Some photographers might not have bothered to take this image because the Black Skimmer is on a mud flat and some people find that to be an unappealing setting.<\/p>\n

My thoughts on that are that I like to take photos of birds in their natural habitat no matter where that might be. As far as I can tell the skimmer didn’t care.<\/p>\n

I have been having problems with my blog lately, I know there have been times it won’t load or when you haven’t been able to comment.<\/p>\n

I’m working on getting this site migrated to a more reliable hosting provider.\u00a0 Even replying to your comments has been a time consuming process so I am behind. Thank you all for your patience.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black Skimmer photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I did my post the other day on “Missing Fort De Soto” I found this Black Skimmer image in my archives while looking for photos to put in that post and wanted to share it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,253,25,704,2000],"tags":[4004,4021,3990,14752,173,4031,4211,4697,5117,165,16568,5123],"class_list":["post-9177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-black-skimmers","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-bird-photography","tag-black-skimmer","tag-coastal-island","tag-gulf-coast","tag-nonbreeding","tag-rynchops-niger","tag-skimmer","tag-skimmers","tag-spring","tag-tidal-mudflat","tag-waterbirds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-5468.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2o1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3322,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/10\/12\/black-skimmer-adult-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":9177,"position":0},"title":"Black Skimmer Adult In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I could always tell when a flock of Black Skimmers were flying in to Fort De Soto's north beach when I was photographing there because I could usually hear their soft, nasal barking yips or yeps before I saw them.","rel":"","context":"In "Black Skimmers"","block_context":{"text":"Black Skimmers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/terns-and-skimmers\/black-skimmers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Black Skimmer in flight over the Gulf on Mexico, photographed at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-flight-8868.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":101757,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/24\/black-skimmer-photo-from-13-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":9177,"position":1},"title":"Black Skimmer Photo From 13 Years Ago","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It was thirteen years ago today when I took this photo of an adult Black Skimmer flying over the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County, Florida.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Black Skimmer flying over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-skimmer-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-7825.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-skimmer-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-7825.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-skimmer-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-7825.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-8056.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-8056.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-8056.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-adult-8056.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9399,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/09\/06\/landing-black-skimmer\/","url_meta":{"origin":9177,"position":3},"title":"Landing Black Skimmer","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Black Skimmers are known by several nicknames which include scissorbills, knifebill and cut-water for how their bills slice through the water when they are hunting and how their bills snap shut on prey.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Landing Black Skimmer on the north beach at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-landing-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-landing-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-landing-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-6367.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-6367.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-6367.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-mia-mcpherson-6367.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14837,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/04\/26\/black-skimmers-at-fort-de-soto-five-years-ago-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":9177,"position":5},"title":"Black Skimmers at Fort De Soto Five Years Ago Today","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It is really cruddy here in Utah this morning so I thought I would go back in time to a warmer, sunnier day via the magic of some Black Skimmer images I created five years ago today.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black Skimmer in flight close up as it flew past me at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-close-up-flight-mia-mcpherson-9063.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-close-up-flight-mia-mcpherson-9063.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-skimmer-close-up-flight-mia-mcpherson-9063.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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