The American Black Oystercatcher has a black body, long red bill, and yellow eyes, and searches for shellfish in the intertidal zone.
It is a large, blackish shorebird with a long red bill and bright yellow eyes.
Black Oystercatchers range along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California. Many birds breeding in Alaska migrate, while most birds from British Columbia south remain in the same region year-round. Researchers tested whether this difference in movement was associated with morphology, comparing birds from seven sites across Alaska and British Columbia.
Alaska birds had shorter bills than birds in British Columbia, and the regional difference remained after body size was accounted for using wing length. The researchers found no regional difference in wing shape despite the regions' different migratory patterns. The study shows that geographic variation in this shorebird was present in bill length but not in the measured wing-shape traits.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Across seven sites in Alaska and British Columbia, Alaska Black Oystercatchers had shorter bills, while measured wing shape showed no regional difference.