Black Skimmers Travel Long Distances to Forage Due to Food Scarcity

Researchers attached satellite transmitters to Black Skimmers on Long Island to study their feeding habits, as Audubon Magazine reported. Scientists fitted 20 Black Skimmers at Lido Beach with GPS transmitters during the summer to monitor where the birds forage in local back bays. [1]

The tracking data revealed that the seabirds traveled far outside their expected range. According to Audubon Magazine, the birds made unexpected trips spanning up to 110 kilometers, or 68 miles, reaching the Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey. [1]

Audubon Magazine reported that these long-distance flights highlighted local food scarcity. The nesting Black Skimmers were forced to forage far from home until Atlantic menhaden, which serve as a critical food source for the adult birds and their chicks, returned to the Lido Beach area. [1]

A fish is an aquatic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal that possesses a protective cranium but lacks limbs with digits, according to Wikipedia. Modern phylogenetics classifies fish as a paraphyletic group that includes jawed and jawless species but excludes tetrapods. [3]