Oystercatcher

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Haematopodidae
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Oystercatchers
Temporal range: Middle Miocene – Recent
Pied oystercatcher
(Haematopus longirostris)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Suborder:
Charadrii
Family: Haematopodidae
Bonaparte, 1838
Genus: Haematopus
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Haematopus ostralegus

Linnaeus, 1758
Species

Twelve, see table

American oystercatchers with chick
Juvenile

The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming 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. The exceptions to this are the Eurasian oystercatcher, the South Island oystercatcher, and the Magellanic oystercatcher, which also breed inland, far inland in some cases. In the past there has been a great deal of confusion as to the species limits, with discrete populations of all black oystercatchers being afforded specific status but pied oystercatchers being considered one single species.[1]

Taxonomy

The genus Haematopus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae to accommodate a single species, the Eurasian oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus.[2] The genus name Haematopus comes from the Ancient Greek words haima αἳμα meaning blood, and pous πούς meaning foot, referring to the red legs of the Eurasian oystercatcher;[3] it had been in use since Pierre Belon in 1555.[4] The family Haematopodidae was introduced (as the subfamily Haematopodinae) by the French naturalist Charles Bonaparte in 1838.[5][6]

The common name oystercatcher was coined by Mark Catesby in 1731 for the North American species H. palliatus, which he described as eating oysters.[7][8] The English zoologist William Yarrell in 1843 established this as the preferred term, replacing the older name sea pie,[7][9] although the term had earlier been used by the Welsh Naturalist Thomas Pennant in 1776 in his British Zoology.[10]

Description

The different species of oystercatcher show little variation in shape or appearance. They range from 39–50 centimetres (15+1⁄2–19+1⁄2 inches) in length and 72–91 cm (28+1⁄2–36 in) in wingspan. The

molluscs. The bill shape varies between species, according to the diet. Those birds with blade-like bill tips pry open or smash mollusc shells, and those with pointed bill tips tend to probe for annelid worms. They show sexual dimorphism, with females being longer-billed and heavier than males.[1]

Feeding

The diet of oystercatchers varies with location. Species occurring inland feed upon

limpets, mussels, gastropods, and chitons. Other prey items include echinoderms
, fish, and crabs.

Breeding

Oystercatcher chicks and eggs

Nearly all species of oystercatcher are

Incubation is shared but not proportionally, females tend to take more incubation and males engage in more territory defence. Incubation varies by species, lasting between 24–39 days. Oystercatchers are also known to practice "egg dumping." Like the cuckoo, they sometimes lay their eggs in the nests of other species such as seagulls, abandoning them to be raised by those birds.[12]

Conservation

The

IUCN
, while both the African and Eurasian oystercatchers are considered near threatened. There has been conflict with commercial shellfish farmers, but studies have found that the impact of oystercatchers is much smaller than that of shore crabs.

Species

The genus contains twelve species.[13]

Species in taxonomic order
Common name Binomial Image Distribution
Magellanic oystercatcher H. leucopodus
Garnot, 1826
Southern South America
Blackish oystercatcher H. ater
Vieillot & Oudart, 1825
South America
Black oystercatcher H. bachmani
Audubon, 1838
West coast of North America
American oystercatcher H. palliatus
Temminck, 1820
North and South America
Canary Islands oystercatcher H. meadewaldoi †
Bannerman, 1913
Canary Islands
African oystercatcher H. moquini
(Bonaparte, 1856)
Southern Africa
Eurasian oystercatcher
or Palaearctic oystercatcher 		H. ostralegus
Linnaeus, 1758
Europe, Asia and northern Africa
Pied oystercatcher H. longirostris
Vieillot, 1817
Australia
South Island oystercatcher H. finschi
Martens, 1897
New Zealand
Chatham oystercatcher H. chathamensis
Hartert, 1927
Chatham Islands
Variable oystercatcher H. unicolor
Forster, 1844
New Zealand
Sooty oystercatcher H. fuliginosus
Gould, 1845
Australia

Several fossil species are known, including Haematopus sulcatus (Brodkorb, 1955) from the Barstovian of Florida and Zanclean of North Carolina, and which is evidently considered a synonym of the extant species Haematopus palliatus.[14]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 84-87334-20-2
    .
  2. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 152.
  3. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  4. ^ Belon, Pierre (1555). L'histoire de la natvre des oyseavx : avec levrs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du natvrel, escrite en sept livres (in French). Paris: Gilles Corrozet. p. 203.
  5. ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1838). "Synopsis vertebratorum systematis". Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Naturali, Bologna (in Latin). 2: 105–133 [118].
  6. ^ Bock, Walter J. (1994). History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 222. New York: American Museum of Natural History. pp. 139, 229.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-214155-2
    .
  8. ^ Catesby, Mark (1729–1732). The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (in English and French). Vol. 1. London: W. Innys and R. Manby. p. 85.
  9. ^ Yarrell, William (1845). A History of British Birds. Vol. 2. London: J. Van Voorst. p. 496.
  10. ^ Pennant, Thomas (1776). British Zoology v.2. London: Benjamin White. pp. 482–483.
  11. ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5
    .
  12. ^ "Birds Dumping Eggs on the Neighbors". Sciencedaily.com. 2011-06-03. Retrieved 2012-12-20.
  13. Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Buttonquail, thick-knees, sheathbills, plovers, oystercatchers, stilts, painted-snipes, jacanas, Plains-wanderer, seedsnipes"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  14. ^ Haematopus palliatus Temminick 1820 (American oystercatcher) at FossilWorks

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Haematopus.
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