[2] Their lower mandible skims or slices over the water's surface, ready to snap shut any small fish unable to dart clear.

The skimmers are sometimes included within the gull family Laridae but separated in other treatments which consider them as a sister group of the terns.

[4] the forehead, ends of the secondaries, tail feathers and under parts are white, the rest of the plumage is black and the basal half of the bill is crimson.

One species, the Indian skimmer, is considered endangered by the IUCN due to this as well as destruction and degradation of the lakes and rivers it uses for feeding.

[12] As in later editions of the works of Linnaeus, the correct spelling (from the Greek words ῥύνχος and ὤψ, together meaning "beak-face") should be rhynchops and this is often adopted.