"I learned from a community member that they haven't seen these type of birds here within town, they usually see them on the islands that surround our cove. With the warming temps. people have noticed more and more different types of birds showing up in our community."
Observation: This is a cool looking bird! I am not 100% sure if Oyster Picker is the real name to these birds, but that's what they call them here. These birds started showing up around here in our lagoon (KC Lagoon). I just noticed these around the beginning of February of this year, but others have seen them in January in our lagoon. At first there were only a couple of these birds, then more showed up. One particular day I seen about 18-20 of them picking around the mussel beds that become exposed during low tide, which is the only time I see them. I learned from a community member that they haven't seen these type of birds here within town, they usually see them on the islands that surround our cove. With the warming temps. people have noticed more and more different types of birds showing up in our community.
LEO says: Oyster picker is a great name. It is more commonly known as a Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani). According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology these are "large noisy birds of the Pacific Coast, that can be found along rocky shores from Alaska to Baja California." This observation has been shared with the AK Sea Grant Marine Advisory Agent in Unalaska.
