From Opus

Haematopus finschi

Photo by janha
Photo taken: Haast, New Zealand

Photo by Peter Ericsson
Photo taken: Abel Tasman, New Zealand

[edit] Identification

46cm. Black head and upper surfaces, and a white belly and a white Y pattern between the chest and the folded wing, long red-orange bill and red legs.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in highlands of South Island (New Zealand); winters to North Island.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.

[edit] Habitat

Rivers, open paddocks and cultivated land, lake beaches, coastal estuaries, bays, beaches, sandflats and intertidal mudflats.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes molluscs and worms.

It nests in sand scrapes on farmland or gravel banks. 2 - 3, brown eggs, blotched dark and pale brown, are laid and incubated for 24-28 days, by both sexes. The young fledge 6 weeks after hatching.

[edit] External Links