Just Another Breeding Season for the American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher takes flight over the Atlantic Ocean on breeding grounds

The American Oystercatchers had started to return to the northeast coast sometime around mid-March from their wintering grounds in the southern states somewhere between South Carolina and Florida. I wandered the beach from Jacob Riis and Fort Tilden in Queens, NY on April 4th and enjoyed the company and curiosity of a number of pairs and a couple of single oystercatchers.

It is not possible to distinguish males and females by appearance as they look alike. They are also hard to confuse with a different shorebird species with the bright red to orange bill and yellow eyes rimmed with red on that black head with a brown and white body.

Scanning the ocean

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