The Black Oystercatcher
Haematopus bachmani

Identification Tips:
Length: 15 inches
Large shorebird
Bright orange, long, thick bill
Plumage entirely black
Pink legs
Yellow eye
Orange orbital ring
Juvenile like adult but bill has dark tip and plumage is browner
Similar species:
The striking black plumage, large size, and bright orange bill make this bird quite unlike any other.

These are large 17-inch shorebirds. Found on coastal mudflats and rocky coasts, they feed on shellfish. These birds group in small flocks and keep apart from other shorebirds. The
plumage is all black with a long red bill and pale legs.
These birds lay their eggs in a shallow depression on a rocky beach. Two or three eggs are laid. They are olive beige with dark brown blotches. Both parents incubate the eggs.
Incubation lasts from 24 to 27 days.
The voices of the Black Oystercatcher are: loud, whistled yelps or high, clear piping whistles, queep,
weeyo, etc.
In display: a long accelerating series, queep, queep, quee deedeedeedeedeedededed-dddddrrr rising then descending.
Alarm is a clear kleep, kleep, klidik-klideeew; falcon alarm is a rapid whidididididew.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western
Publishing Company, Inc.
Content from: http://aviary.owls.com/