American Black Oystercatcher

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American Black Oystercatcher

The American Black Oystercatcher, Haematopus bachmani, also called Western Black Oystercatcher, is a conspicuous black bird found on the shoreline of western North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. It ranges from the Aleutian Islands

Aleutian Islands

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming a volcanic arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about 1,200 mi westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula....
of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
to the coast of the Baja California peninsula

Baja California Peninsula

The Baja California peninsula, in English the Lower California peninsula is a peninsula in western Mexico. It extends some 1250 km from Mexicali, Baja California, in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, in the south, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California ....
.

The American Black Oystercatcher is the only representative of the oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

The oystercatchers are a group of waders; they form the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia....
family (Haematopodidae) over most of its range, overlapping slightly with the American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher , occasionally called the American Pied Oystercatcher, is a member of Family Haematopodidae. The bird is uniquely marked by its black and white body and a long, thick orange beak....
(H.

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Encyclopedia

The American Black Oystercatcher, Haematopus bachmani, also called Western Black Oystercatcher, is a conspicuous black bird found on the shoreline of western North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. It ranges from the Aleutian Islands
Aleutian Islands

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming a volcanic arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about 1,200 mi westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula....
of Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
to the coast of the Baja California peninsula
Baja California Peninsula

The Baja California peninsula, in English the Lower California peninsula is a peninsula in western Mexico. It extends some 1250 km from Mexicali, Baja California, in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, in the south, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California ....
.

The American Black Oystercatcher is the only representative of the oystercatcher
Oystercatcher

The oystercatchers are a group of waders; they form the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia....
family (Haematopodidae) over most of its range, overlapping slightly with the American Oystercatcher
American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher , occasionally called the American Pied Oystercatcher, is a member of Family Haematopodidae. The bird is uniquely marked by its black and white body and a long, thick orange beak....
(H. palliatus) on the coast of Baja California. Within its range it is most commonly referred to as the Black Oystercatcher, although this name is also used locally for the Blackish Oystercatcher
Blackish Oystercatcher

The Blackish Oystercatcher is a species of wader in the Haematopodidae family.It is found in Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and Peru, and is a vagrancy in birds to Uruguay....
and the African Black Oystercatcher
African Black Oystercatcher

The African Black Oystercatcher, sometimes known as the African oystercatcher, is a large wader which is a resident breeder on the rocky coasts and islands of southern Africa....
. Its scientific name is derived by John James Audubon
John James Audubon

John James Audubon was a French people-United States ornithology, natural history, Hunting#United States, and Painting. He painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America in a form far superior to what had gone before....
from that of his friend John Bachman
John Bachman

The Rev. John Bachman was an American Lutheran minister, social activist and natural history who collaborated with J.J. Audubon to produce Viviparous Quadrapeds of North America and whose writings, particularly Unity of the Human Race, were influential in the development of the theory of evolution, and who founded Newberry College....
.

Although the species is not considered threatened, its global population size is estimated between 8,900–11,000 individuals. The Black Oystercatcher is a species of high conservation concern throughout its range (U.S., Canadian, Alaskan, and Northern & Southern Pacific Shorebird Conservation Plans), a keystone indicator species along the north Pacific shoreline, a management indicator species
Indicator species

An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an Environmental science such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change....
in the Chugach National Forest
Chugach National Forest

The Chugach National Forest is a 5.4 million acre United States U.S. National Forest in south central Alaska. It is located in the mountains surrounding Prince William Sound including the eastern Kenai Peninsula and the delta of the Copper River....
, and a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service focal species for priority conservation action.

Description
The American Black Oystercatcher is a large entirely black shorebird
Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups....
, with a long (9 cm) bright red bill and pink legs. It has a bright yellow iris
Iris (anatomy)

The iris is a membrane in the eye, responsible for controlling the amount of light reaching the retina. The iris consists of pigmented fibrovascular tissue known as a stroma of iris....
and a red eye-ring. Its plumage
Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates....
varies slightly from north to south, being darker further north.

Behavior

The American Black Oystercatcher is restricted in its range, never straying far from shores, in particular favoring rocky shorelines. It has been suggested that this bird is seen mostly on coastal stretches
Wildlife corridor

A wildlife corridor or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities . This allows an exchange of individuals between populations, lowering inbreeding within populations, so increasing effective population size, and facilitating re-establishment of populations that have been decimate...
which have some quieter embayments, such as jetty
Jetty

Coastal lagoons fronted by barrier spit typically have entrances that migrate through time. Here, the entrance has been fixed by jetty variety of structures used in river, Dock , and Sea works which are generally carried out in pairs from river banks, or in continuation of river channels at their outlets into deep water; or out into docks,...
protected areas. It forages in the intertidal zone
Intertidal zone

The intertidal zone is the area that is exposed to the air at low tide and submerged at high tide, for example, the area between tide marks. This area can include many different types of habitats, including steep rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, or wetlands ....
, feeding on marine invertebrate
Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s, particularly molluscs such as mussel
Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats....
s, limpet
Limpet

The name Limpet is used for many kinds of mostly saltwater but also freshwater snails, specifically those that have a simple gastropod shell which is more or less broadly conical in shape, and which is either not coiled, or appears not to be coiled, in the adult snail....
s and chiton
Chiton

Chitons are small to large, primitive marine mollusks in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 Extant taxon species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
s. It will also take crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
s, isopods and barnacle
Barnacle

A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the Subphylum Crustacean, and is hence distantly related to crabs and lobsters....
s. It hunts through the intertidal area, searching for food visually, often so close to the water's edge it has to fly up to avoid crashing surf. It uses its strong bill to dislodge food and pry shells open.

The American Black Oystercatcher is a territorial bird during the nesting season, defending a foraging and nesting area in one territory. Some pairs have been recorded staying together for many years. Nests are small bowls or depressions close to the shore in which small pebbles and shell fragments are tossed in with a sideward or backard flick of the bill.

Around 2 to 3 egg
Egg (biology)

In most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo....
s are laid in this nest, these are hardy and can even survive being submerged by a high tide
Tide

Tides are the rising of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuary water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation ....
. Incubation takes around 26-28 days. The chicks are capable of leaving the nest after one day, and will stay in the territory for a long time after fledging
Fledge

Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of raising chicks to a fully grown state by the chick's parents....
(40 days). The fledged juveniles will stay in the territory until the next breeding season. If the parents migrate
Bird migration

Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather....
, that year's chicks will migrate with them; this happens more often in the north of the range.

External links

on the Internet Bird Collection
VIREO-(includes picture of egg clutch
Clutch (eggs)

A clutch of egg refers to all the eggs produced by one bird or reptile at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest....
)