Bird of the Week – Black Oystercatcher
About 15 years ago now, WC was in Valdez to start a Birdathon – in fact, a record-making Birdathon – when he encountered a drunken fisherman on the docks of the small boat harbor in Valdez, Alaska. The guy saw the binoculars and was able to conclude we were birders. “Yeah,” he slurred, “We just saw a Double-crested Oystercracker.”
Which was probably a Black Oystercatcher.
Black Oystercatcher, Kachemak Bay, Alaska
That’s a bird bill to remember, WC thinks you will agree. This is a true shorebird, spending its entire life along the rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean, found from the Aleutian Islands to Baja California. In the winter, they sometimes join flocks in mussel-rich zones. But none of that migration nonsense for this bird.
Camera geek stuff: f10, 1/750, ISO2500.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Since no one is looking, OYsters,YYYUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!!! I just go barf.
Beautiful bird, splendid story. I wonder if..over the centuries..early, tribal cultures..caught and used those beaks/bills..as decoration on their masks, and robes?
A very memorable bird photo! Thanks, WC.