From Opus

Alternative Name: Western Black Oystercatcher

Photo by Doug Greenberg
Point Pinos, Pacific Grove, California, USA

Haematopus bachmani

[edit] Identification

• All black wader
• Long bill is bright red
• Pink legs
• Eye has bright yellow iris with red eye-ring
• Northern birds may be slightly darker

[edit] Distribution

	Western Aleutian Islands, along Canadian, American, and Mexican Pacific coasts to central Baja California and Los Coronados Islands.
	Legend • H. bachmani; year-round • H. bachmani; wintering Maps/Texts consulted1,2,3

Photo by Nick Richter
Ballona Creek jetty, Los Angeles County, USA, September 2005

[edit] Taxonomy

A monotypic species.^[4]

[edit] Habitat

Rocky shorelines.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes marine invertebrates, particularly mussels, limpets and chitons, also crabs and barnacles. It uses its strong bill to dislodge food and pry shells open.

[edit] Breeding

The nests are small bowls or depressions close to the shore filled with small pebbles and shell fragments. 2-3 eggs are laid and are incubated for around 26-28 days. The chicks are capable of leaving the nest after one day; they stay in the territory for about 40 days after fledging. The fledged juveniles stay in the territory until the next breeding season. If the parents migrate, that year's chicks will migrate with them; this happens more often in the north of the range.

[edit] References

1. Sibley, DA. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0679451228
2. Brinkley, ES. 2007. Field Guide to Birds of North America. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 978-1402738746
3. Andres, Brad A., and Gary A. Falxa. 1995. "Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)." The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/155.
4. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.

• List of references

[edit] External Links