I just love Black Skimmers.
Rarely does a bird fit its name as well as they do, and equally rarely to you find a bird at once silly and graceful, gaudy yet plain, striking yet subdued. They can be one of the more entertaining shore birds, and have a knack for being one of the most frustrating as well.
Black skimmers are primarily a seabird, resembling in appearance and habits a sort of odd tern. They are found throughout the US Gulf coast (which is great for me, since I live in the Tampa bay area) and along the Atlantic coast up as far as Cape Cod, and south through the Caribbean and into South America. They are also found along the Pacific coast in southern California, down through Central and into South America.
The adults are black above and white below, which makes for a striking, if plain contrast. However, they are adorned with bright orange webbed feet, and a monstrous black and orange bill, which they employ to great advantage in the activity for which they are named: skimming.