A citizen scientist’s survey provides insights into the movements of Atlantic and Gulf states’ populations of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) (IMAGE)

PLOS

A citizen scientist’s survey provides insights into the movements of Atlantic and Gulf states’ populations of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger)

Caption

Band codes for Black Skimmers observed in Northeast Florida. A summary of the 347 unique band codes for Black Skimmers that I observed in NE Florida from January 2021 to July 2025. The graph shows the number of birds from each state and the code of the field readable band for each. The color of the column represents the color of the band for that state. Note that NC and SC birds both have black bands, but NC birds have black bands on the left leg with white codes that are #, ##, alpha#, and alpha## (e.g., Black N8 is alpha#). SC birds have black bands on the right leg with white codes that are ##alpha (e.g., Black 00M). The abbreviations for US states are: Massachusetts (MA), New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ), Virginia (VA), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Florida (FL). 

Credit

Brett R. Moyer, 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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