Black
Oystercatcher
© 1990 Book of North American
Birds, Reader's Digest Books |
Size |
Medium |
Price |
| 15" x 15" |
Water Color |
$ 2,400 |
To purchase this painting go to "Purchases" |
Black
Oystercatcher |
Haematopus
bachmani |
17 - 19" (43 -
48cm) |
|
The Black Oysterchatcher's range
extends along the Pacific of North America from the Aleutian Islands to La
Paz in lower California and the Kurile Islands. They breed throughout this range.
Their nests are usually built above the high tide line in weedy turf, beach gravel, or rock depressions.
A dump
nest of more than 4 eggs unusually indicates that more than one female is using the nest.
Their diet consists of various marine invertebrates, especially
mussels; worms and echinoderms; and also fish, crustaceans, barnacles, and limpets.
The Oystercatcher has the
right tool for opening oysters and other bivalves: a long, stout bill with
mandibles that are triangular in cross section and reinforced so that they do not bend
easily. To open the bivalves they use one of two techniques:
stabbing or hammering. The stabbers sneak up on open mollusks and plunge their bills between the
shells severing
the adductors before the bivalve can close up. The hammerers loosen the bivalve from its
moorings and then shatter one shell with a rabid series of short powerful blows.
The young
learn from the techniques by observing their parents who continue to feed them often
beyond the fledgling stage. |
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