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These odd-looking birds, with their black-and-white plumage and huge red bills with very long lower mandibles, are oversided terns. They have long wings and an elegant, lilting flight, dragging their lower mandibles through the surface to snap up small fish. Most of these skimmers were resting on mudflats at Mission Bay in San Diego, CA (note the extremely long wings and, in the picture of the yawning bird and the front view at the bottom of the page, how thin the bill is); the resting flock was at Newport Back Bay, in coastal southern CA. The long wings and delicate 'skimming' feeding behavior are visible on another page with skimmers in flight.
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