South Island Pied Oystercatcher

The South Island oystercatcher is easily identifiable as a pied oystercatcher – a large wader with striking black and white plumage, long red-orange bill, and red legs. It is distinguished from the pied morph of the variable oystercatcher by a white lower back, more white on the wing, and a demarcation line of black and white further forward on the breast, and from the pied oystercatcher of Australia by a longer bill and shorter legs, as well as the forward demarcation line of white on the back being pointed rather than square. It is 46 cm in length; its wingspan is 80–86 cm; it weighs 550 g.

The South Island oystercatcher is endemic to New Zealand where it breeds inland on the South Island, after which most of the population moves to estuaries and harbors on the North Island. It has been recorded occasionally as a vagrant on Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, and the eastern coast of mainland Australia. Its breeding habitat comprises braided river systems, open paddocks, cultivated land, lake beaches, subalpine tundra, and herb fields. Non-breeding habitat includes coastal estuaries, bays, beaches, sand flats, and intertidal mudflats.

It mostly feeds on mollusks and worms. A major food source for oystercatchers is the New Zealand cockle, Austrovenus stutchburyi. It is estimated that an individual oystercatcher can eat around 200,000 cockles in a single year.