Adults: Head, neck, throat, breast, black. Rest of upperparts, dark brown. Belly, rump, white. Eyering, red. Eye, yellow. Tail, base white. Narrow, short, white wingbar visible in flight. Underwing primaries, black. Secondaries, outer greater coverts, white with black tips. Bill, red with a yellowish tip. Legs, pink.
Immatures: Like adult but black parts have brownish edges. Eye, dark. Bill, red with a dark tip. Legs are paler.
Other Names (World)
American Oystercatcher, American Pied Oystercatcher
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada (B), Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands (B), Uruguay (B), USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (B) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (B) (NB).
Vagrant to Jamaica.
Population
Estimated population is 37,000 - 110,000 (2010).
American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) [XC617466]
by from Quintero (near Conc\u00f3n), Valparaiso, Valpara\u00edso, Chile (call)
American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) [XC623941]
by Bill Grantham from Uni\u00f3n Hidalgo, Juchit\u00e1n de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Mexico (call)
Subspecies
Sometimes considered conspecific with Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus).
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
palliatus Temminck, 1820 - Coasts of North and South America, from Gulf of California to central Chile, and from Massachusetts to south-central Argentina, including West Indies.