Scientific name: Haematopus moquini
The African oystercatcher is a large, noisy wader, with completely black plumage, red legs and a strong broad red bill. The sexes are similar in appearance, however, females are larger and have a slightly longer beak than males. Juveniles have soft grey plumage and do not express the characteristic red legs and beak until after they fledged. The call is a distinctive loud piping, very similar to Eurasian oystercatchers. As the Eurasian oystercatcher is a migratory species they only occur as a vagrant in southern Africa, and its black-and-white plumage makes confusion impossible.
he African oystercatcher is native to the mainland coasts and offshore islands of Southern Africa sometimes occurring as a vagrant in Angola and Mozambique. Its breeding range extends from Lüderitz, Namibia to Mazeppa Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It generally prefers rocky and/or sandy shores of islands or the mainland, occasionally moving to lagoons, estuaries and coastal pans.
It mainly eats mussels and other aquatic invertebrates, doing most of its foraging in the intertidal zone, dislodging molluscs from rocks with a jab of its bill or probing the sand for other animals.
