Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Charadriiformes > Laridae > Rynchops > Rynchops albicollis

Rynchops albicollis (Indian Skimmer)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Indian skimmer or Indian scissors-bill [পানিকাটা (Panikata) in Bengali] (Rynchops albicollis) is one of the three species that belong to the skimmer family. They are somewhat tern-like but like other skimmers, have a short upper mandible and the longer lower mandible that is ploughed along the surface of water as the bird flies over the water to pick aquatic prey. It is found in southern Asia, where it is patchily distributed and declining in numbers. They are mainly found in rivers or estuaries. They are very brightly marked in black, white and orange, making them difficult to miss.
View Wikipedia Record: Rynchops albicollis

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Rynchops albicollis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
44
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 8.03108
EDGE Score: 3.58697
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  371 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [2]  70 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  30 %
Forages - Water Surface [2]  100 %
Clutch Size [4]  3
Incubation [3]  22 days
Wing Span [3]  3.542 feet (1.08 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Bandh Baratha Sanctuary IV   Rajasthan, India  
Buxa Tiger Reserve Sanctuary IV 23685 West Bengal, India  
Keoladeo (Bharatpur) National Park II 7668 Rajasthan, India  
Sunderban National Park 261613 India  

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Himalaya Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan No
Indo-Burma Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam No
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka India, Sri Lanka No

Prey / Diet

Dermogenys pusilla (Freshwater halfbeak)[3]
Pethia ticto (Two-spot barb)[3]
Salmostoma bacaila (Large razorbelly minnow)[3]
Salmostoma sardinella (Sardinella razorbelly minnow)[3]
Systomus chrysopoma (Olive barb)[3]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Channa punctata (Spotted snakehead)1

Predators

Haliaeetus leucoryphus (Pallas's Fish Eagle)[3]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Oligorchis vermiculus <Unverified Name>[5]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 4Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 5Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0