The Skimmer is said to be a common bird along the Ganga river system, but until recently I had only seen lone examples and on 2 or 3 occasions: on the Yamuna at Delhi, and on the Ganga at Bithoor near Kanpur. So I was quite pleased to see one on the Ganga, just outside HRI, in early January 1998. And then, next morning, I found a flock of over 30! I saw them again later, in early February, snoozing in parallel on a sandbank at 9am. Then I counted 36. The photos below are from the first occasion.
Note the prominent red beak. The lower mandible is longer than the upper - this allows the bird to "skim" the water surface with it as it hunts.
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More recently, at about 4:30 pm on November 7 1998, I saw a flock of about 70 skimmers in the same area as above.
Back to the list of birds at HRI.