Black Oystercatchers & BLOY Program
The project is coordinated by Audubon California in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and in conjunction with the US Bureau of Land Management's California Coastal National Monument. The project includes collaboration with the CA State Parks and the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.
The Black Oystercatcher is a striking, charismatic bird with a bright orange beak and distinctive call. Despite its name, this brownish-black bird seldom if ever eats oysters. California's only year-round resident of the rocky intertidal, it can be seen prying limpets, mussels and other sea life from the dynamic Pacific shoreline. A species of high conservation concern due to their small population size and low reproductive success, Black Oystercatchers are highly vulnerable to impacts from a rapidly changing coastal environment. This includes sea level rise, increased storm and king tides, ocean acidification, disturbance from coastal users, and predation from corvids and other predators.
Pairs mate for life and typically defend a breeding territory, which includes an elevated area for nesting, well above the high-tide mark and adjacent to a feeding area such as mussel beds. This can be on gravel, a grassy area or a depression in rock. The nest is a slight scrape, with a sparse lining of pebbles and pieces of shell. If disturbed, adults will take flight with loud, ringing whistles, easily heard above the waves. This leaves the now unattended nest open to predation and damage. During nesting season from March through September, Black Oystercatcher eggs and chicks are especially at risk, as this tends to coincide with an increase in visitors to coastal areas.
All the images in this gallery have been captured along the Northern California coast both prior and during my involvement with BLOY and I am continually adding more, so check back for new additions.
Learn more about this striking bird HERE.
Learn more about BLOY HERE.
Female American Black Oystercatcher - Frazari Subspecies
Monterey Bay, California
Here is the latest information on this rarity from Rick Hanks, Regional Coordinator of the Black Oystercatcher Monitoring Program.
"Our wandering oystercatcher is a female and appears to be an American Oystercatcher (AMOY) of the Frazari subspecies found on the Pacific Coast side of Baja according to those who've recently applied a 1985 BLOY-Hybrid-AMOY rating criteria. The ratings, however, places her right along the line between an AMOY and a hybrid, so she's either an AMOY with a fair amount of hybrid genes or a hybrid with much more AMOY genes that BLOY genes. Because in recent decades, there has been a relatively strict line between the BLOY and AMOY populations with little interbreeding along the Baja coast, the tendency is to put her in the AMOY side of the line. Therefore, we should refer to her as an AMOY unless further analysis indicates otherwise.
Regardless of where she falls on the BLOY-Hybrid-AMOY scale, she's defiantly a unique bird on the California Central Coast. She appears much more robust that a typical AMOY. That is most likely due to her BLOY genes. According to the literature, most AMOYs are a few grams lighter that BLOYs. She also has a beak that appears noticeably longer that a typical BLOY. This appears common with most AMOYs. In general, female oystercatchers have slightly longer and thinner beaks than male oystercatchers that have a slightly thicker and more robust beak. This oystercatcher characteristic appears more obvious with AMOYs than with BLOYs, but one would have to do an extensive beak measurement study to verify or refute that observation.
Since this AMOY, for whatever reason, has been moving up the California coast, there is no telling whether or not she will be staying on the Monterey Peninsula. Reports over the week have indicated that the established territorial pairs have been vigorously chasing her out of their respective territories, so she appears to be doing okay for now hanging out with the band of unattached BLOYs that have been occupying the territory along Asilomar State Beach since last fall. The only problem that she seems to have there is with subadult BLOYs at occasionally chase her in an attempt to take food from her (i.e., shellfish she had just foraged)."
American OystercatcherAsilomarAvifaunaBirdsBlack OystercatcherCaliforniaCoastFemaleHaeHaematopus bachmaniHaematopus palliatusHybridJacqueline Deely PhotographyNaturePacfic FlywayPacific CoastPacific GrovePacific OceanRareRocksUnited StatesWavesWildlife
