Sunday 20 February 2011

World Bird Wednesday - Pied Oystercatcher.

Whilst walking along the sea wall at Point Lonsdale I found this Pied Oystercatcher working away in the wave wash. It was feeding on beach worms and as these pictures show he (she?) seemed to be doing OK.

This oystercatcher is Haematopus longirostris which is a different species to the American (H. palliatus) and the European pied oystercatchers (H. ostralegus), although I think it would be interesting to see then all at the same time to see if you could sort them out!
The bird would pause as the waves washed over its feet, and then start the gentle pulling again -the picture are all one worm! I watched it find 4 or 5 and it did not snap any of them.

The bird has colour bands as part of the Victorian Wader Study Groups long term study of these birds. In the hand theses are delightful birds, and often just lie up side down in your lap as you process them. However, they are never that easy to trap!


















































You can find many more images of birds from around the world at World Bird Wednesday.
You can see the blog post that originally featured these images here, and you can look at the most recent of my posts by clicking the Paying Ready Attention link on the RHS of the screen.

15 comments:

  1. Great sighting and a cool looking bird, Stewart. Except for the color, it is very similiar to the American Oystercatcher.

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  2. Great photos of the Oystercatcher with the worm. They do better down your way than up here. They have trouble breeding successfully up here in SE QLD.

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  3. A lovely bird I get to watch breeding on my local pool. Lovely images.

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  4. They are fascinating birds!

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  5. Great bird Stewart!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  6. Great images. It rather reminds me of eating spaghetti.

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  7. Nice to see a species from 'down-under' that I recognise. OC is a true rarity in landlocked Surrey, UK.
    I agree Stewart, it would be fun to see all three specie together for a detailed comparison.

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  8. old carrot beak!
    I am lucky in east Cheshire, although 60 miles from the coast, we have Oystercatchers breeding less than a mile away on a local driving range.... smashing birds

    Great images of this lone star

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  9. Lovely captures Stewart. Especially like that last one.

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  10. That worm is holding on for dear life! Fantastic series on this shorebird Stewart.

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  11. Excellent seres of photos showing the Oystercatcher in action!

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  12. A great hunter--with the right tool for it also!! Awesome look at the pied oystercatcher!

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  13. nice captures of the oystercatcher -- I especially like the last one with it pulling out the worm!

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