photo gallery > Birds (9) > two black oystercatchers - chain islets

Click image for full size view. Black oystercatchers are non-migratory. They may move a little in the spring and fall, but they usually remain close to their nesting area. The black oystercatcher can be found from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska southward along the Pacific Coast to Baja California. The female black oyster catcher lays two to three eggs among pebbles in a shallow rocky depression or in a hollow on the beach above the high tide line. The nest is built by both the male and the female. They will create a scrape or depression in the ground and then pick up and toss shells, bits of rock, and pebbles into the depression with a backwards or sideways flip of their heads. They will use the same nest year-after-year. Both the male and the female take turns incubating the eggs.