photo gallery > Birds (9) > black oystercatcher

Click image to view full size. The black oystercatcher eats a variety of invertebrate marine life including mussels, whelks and limpets. Despite its name, it rarely eats oysters! It especially likes to eat creatures that cling to the rocks below the high-tide line. It usually forages at low tide and rests at high tide. It uses its long, sharp bill to pry bivalves like limpets and mussels off the rocks and then to open them. They also look for open mussels and disable them by stabbing the adductor muscle that holds the shell together. This keeps the shell open. The oyster catcher then pulls out the contents with the tip of its sharp bill and swallows its catch.