African black oystercatcher

Haematopus moquini

TAXONOMY

Haematopus moquini Bonaparte, 1856, Cape of Good Hope. Monotypic.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: African oystercatcher, black oystercatcher; French: Huîtrier de moquin; German: Schwarzer austernfischer; Spanish: Ostrero negro Africano.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

16.54–17.72 in (42–45 cm); 1.28–1.67 lb (582–757 g), females 1.42–1.76 lb (646–800 g). Dark overall with vermilion bill and eye ring, red eye, and pink legs. Females have noticeably longer bills.

DISTRIBUTION

Coastal southern Africa from northern Namibia to Cape of Good Hope and east to Natal.

HABITAT

Sandy and rocky shores, offshore islands, occasionally estuaries and coastal lagoons.

BEHAVIOR

Territorial, relying on camouflage on dark rocky substrates. Sedentary adults rarely disperse as far as juveniles; most often less than 100 mi (160 km) in any case.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Eats limpets, mussels, whelks, and polychaetes in rocky areas, wider range of prey on sandy substrates but favors sand mussels.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Usually breeds on offshore islands and sandy beaches, laying one to two eggs between October and April. Eggs are greenish or buff with dark brown spots. Eggs and young are vulnerable to terrestrial mammalian predators, although young are well camouflaged. The chick plumage is gray with black stripes on back and sides.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Considered Near Threatened as of 2001, with a total population of about 5,000 birds. Major threats are introduced mammalian predators on island populations, followed by human disturbance on sandy beaches.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.

African Black Oystercatcher
Conservation status
Near Threatened
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Charadriiformes Family: Haematopodidae Genus: Haematopus Species: H. moquini
Binomial name
Haematopus moquini (Bonaparte, 1856)

The African Black Oystercatcher, (Haematopus moquini) sometimes known as the African oystercatcher, is a large wader which is a resident breeder on the rocky coasts and islands of southern Africa. This oystercatcher has a population of less than 5,000 adults.

The African Black Oystercatcher is a large and noisy plover-like bird, with completely black plumage, red legs and a strong broad red bill used for smashing or prying open molluscs such as mussels, or for finding earthworms. The sexes are similar in appearance, but juveniles are browner than adults.

The African Black Oystercatcher is unmistakable in flight with its all-dark plumage. The call is a distinctive loud piping, very similar to Common Pied Oystercatcher. That migratory species can occur as a vagrant in southern Africa, but its black-and-white plumage makes confusion impossible.

The nest is a bare scrape on pebbles or shingles. The female generally lays 2-4 eggs, which are incubated by both adults.

The scientific name commemorates the French naturalist Alfred Moquin-Tandon.

References

• BirdLife International (2006). Haematopus moquini. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened
• Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater ISBN 0-7099-2034-2

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)