Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

About the Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

The Widow Skimmer is one of the most recognizable dragonflies in North America - each wing carries a broad black band across the base, and mature males add a bold white patch beyond it and a powdery blue-white body, so a perched male looks like it is wearing black-and-white flags. Females and young males have the black bands alone on yellow-and-brown bodies.

The name comes from the black wing bases: the female appears to be "in mourning." Widow Skimmers are pond and marsh dragonflies that perch prominently on stems and shrubs at the water's edge, making short territorial flights and returning to favored perches - one of the easier large dragonflies to approach with a camera.

In Texas the Widow Skimmer is common across most of the state from spring through fall around ponds, marshes, and slow streams, and the pond edges at Hornsby Bend are full of them on a summer morning.