Black Oystercatcher in Detail.

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) have bright reddish-orange bills around 3.5 inches long, and reddish-orange circles around yellow eyes. They have dark colored bodies of brown-black typically the further north they are the darker their plumage. Black Oystercatcher also have light pinkish legs. They can live to be 16 years old.

Black Oystercatchers are easily identifiable by their black feathers, bright orange-red bill, and distinctive yellow eyes. They have strong, sturdy legs and webbed feet that enable them to cling to rocky shorelines and navigate through the intertidal zone.

Black Oystercatchers are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds. Black Oystercatchers become extremely territorial while nesting and pairs generally separate themselves from other oystercatchers. Nest are usually cleared out depressions along a shore often gravel beaches, wave-cut platforms, rocky headlands, and small rocky islets found just above high tide lines. They prefer non-forested island with gravel and shell beaches. Breeding pairs may build many nests before the female choose the one to be used. They breed on rocky coastal areas, laying their eggs in a shallow scrape or depression in the rocks. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and caring for the chicks after they hatch. Clutches usually consist of 2 to 3 eggs. Eggs have been known to survive after being submerged in high tides. Around 90% of Black Oystercatchers in Alaska will return to the same nesting site. This may explain why some islands where nonnative predators have been introduced, no breeding pairs are found.

Black Oystercatchers eat mollusks preferably mussels, along with barnacles, limpets, sand worms, and crabs. They tend to feed in areas with macrophytic algae (Fucus gardneri) and mussels. They use their strong bills to pry open the shells of their prey, and they have been known to use tools such as rocks or sticks to help them with this task.

The worlds population is estimated to be around 10,000 birds and considered a species of high concern in the Alaska. Around 65% of all Black Oystercatchers are believed to reside in Alaska. Some will migrate over 600 miles seasonally while others may stay around their nesting areas.

Preferring rocky shorelines, they are found all along the coast of the southern ends of Alaska from the Aleutians across south-central and throughout southeast and on to the Baja in Mexico. In Chugach National Forest they've been used as an indicator species for sign of a healthy costal ecology.

In winter Black Oystercatchers will tend to group in tens to hundreds.