American Oystercatcher

Haematopus palliatusOrder: CHARADRIIFORMESFamily: Oystercatchers (Haematopodidae)

General

American Oystercatcher: Large shorebird with white underparts, brown upperparts, black hood, and long, bright red-orange needle-shaped bill. White wing patches are visible in flight. Yellow eyes are surrounded by orange eye-rings; legs are yellow. Sexes are similar. Juvenile resembles adult but appears scaly above and has darker bill.

Range and Habitat

American Oystercatcher: Found exclusively along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Pacific coast of Mexico, and coast of the Gulf of California. Occasionally strays to coasts along southern California. Prefers sandy beaches, mudflats, and occasionaly rocky shores where mollusk prey can be found.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"wheep", "whee-ah", "wheer, wheer, wh' heh' heh' heh' heh' heh, heh' h' h' h"

Interesting Facts

American Oystercatchers insert their long blade-like bills into mussels and other bivalves, severing the powerful adductor muscles before the shells can close.
Nesting adults will add broken shells or pebbles to the nests in order to disguise the speckled eggs.
Young nestlings can run within 24 hours of birth but their beaks are not strong enough to open bivalve shells until they are about 2 months old.
A group of oystercatchers are collectively known as a "parcel" of oystercatchers.

Author

Ashli Maruster Splitbar

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher: Large shorebird with white underparts, brown upperparts, black hood, long, bright red-orange needle-shaped bill. White wing patches visible in flight. Yellow eyes surrounded by orange eye-rings. Legs and feet are pink. Feeds on mussels and other bivalves. Rapid direct flight.

● Song: "wheep", "whee-ah", "wheer, wheer, wh' heh' heh' heh' heh' heh, heh' h' h' h"

● Foraging & Feeding: American Oystercatcher: Feeds on a variety of mollusks particularly bivalves, occasionally fish. Probes into sand or chisels prey from rocks. Hammers or stabs shells with long pointed bill to pry them open.

● Breeding & nesting: American Oystercatcher: Monogamous solitary or loose colonial nester of sandy oceanic coasts and mudflats. Female and male build scrape nest of sand lined with vegetation and/or small pebbles. Female lays one to four buff gray eggs with dark brown speckles. Both sexes incubate for 23 to 28 days, and rear precocial young. Nestlings are down covered after hatching, leave nest soon after, and are independent by about 35 days of age.

● Similar species: American Oystercatcher: No other North American bird shows the combination of field marks of the American Oystercatcher. The long red-orange bill is a particularly good field mark that separates it from nearly every other shorebird regularly seen in North America.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with rapid wing beats low over water.

American Oystercatcher Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: American Oystercatcher: Found exclusively along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Pacific coast of Mexico, and coast of the Gulf of California. Occasionally strays to coasts along southern California. Prefers sandy beaches, mudflats, and occasionaly rocky shores where mollusk prey can be found.

^BreedingMonogamous, Colonial or solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common in coastal range

^MigrationNorthern birds migrate

^Weight22.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America