American Oystercatcher

Haematopus palliatus

Bright orange bill specialized to crack bivalves. Delivers messages with a knife already drawn.

Population: ~61,000 mature individuals (~8,000 North American + ~53,000 South American; IUCN/BirdLife band 50,000-99,999)
Habitat: Coastal intertidal environments — sandy and shelly beaches, dunes, salt marshes, marsh islands, tidal mudflats, and dredge-spoil islands; forages on exposed mud/sand flats at low tide and roosts/nests above the high-tide line.
Fun fact: The American Oystercatcher's long, blade-like red-orange bill is a specialized tool that it uses to either snip shut a bivalve's adductor muscle before the shell can close, or hammer straight through the shell to reach the meat inside.
Range: Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America from Massachusetts to Florida and Texas, the Caribbean, and south through Central America to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina; also Pacific coasts of Baja California, Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Chile. Northernmost breeding populations (US Atlantic/Canada coast) are migratory; southern populations are largely resident. Occurs across 40+ countries/territories.
Diet: Almost exclusively marine bivalves and other intertidal invertebrates — oysters, mussels, clams, limpets — plus marine worms, crabs, sea urchins, starfish, and jellyfish; uses its long, laterally flattened bill either to snip the adductor muscle of slightly opened shells or to hammer shells open.
Size: 0.44 m
Wingspan: 0.81 m
Lifespan: 23 years

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