Eurasian Oystercatcher

Haematopus ostralegus

Other Names

  European Oystercatcher, Oystercatcher, Common Oystercatcher, Northern Pied Oystercatcher, Sea Pie   Huîtrier pie   Austernfischer   Ostrero Euroasiático   Strandskata   Scholekster   Beccaccia di mare

World: Found along the coast in much of Eurasia as well as inland in c, s Russia. Winters from the Mediterranean through the Red and Arabian Seas, the Persian Gulf, Sri Lanka, Burma, S China and Africa.

Kenya: Recorded annually at the coast with sporadic records from Lake Turkana and the Rift Valley lakes.

Feeds on mussels and other bivalves as well as limpets, molluscs, crabs and other marine invertebrates. Their feeding method depends largely on their prey but they prise, hammer, stab and probe with their strong bills.

Oystercatchers have a very distinctive, plaintive and far carrying flight call which may often be the first indication of their presence.