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Bird name:

American Oystercatcher

Haematopus palliatus

Order

CHARADRIIFORMES

Family

Oystercatchers (Haematopodidae)

Code 4

AMOY

Code 6

HAEPAL

ITIS

176472

Breeding Location:

Beaches, coastal

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Colonial or solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Fairly common in coastal range

Egg Color:

Buff gray with dark brown speckles

Number of Eggs:

1 - 4

Incubation Days:

23 - 28

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Sand, lined with plant material, small pebbles

Migration:

Northern birds migrate

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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.

Breeding and 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.

Foraging and 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.

Vocalization

American Oystercatcher: Very vocal particularly during breeding season. Call is a loud "wheep" or "whee-ah." Song is a loud, piping, rising then descending "wheer, wheer, we' heh' heh' heh' heh' heh, heh' h' h' h." Voice and vocalizations very similar to the Black Oystercatcher.

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.

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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.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America