Specie's Page                                               Oyster Catcher - Small Waders

Oyster Catcher:

UK Status: Resident, numbers bolstered in winter by migrants..

Habitat: Oyster Catches are mainly coastal in Ireland, but in Scotland, Wales and England come much further inland, except for great swathes of the midlands and the south. Their diet varies greatly depending on whether they are inland, or on the coast. Shellfish, insects, worms and gastropods are a most important part of their diet, hence the name Oyster Catcher.

 Breeding: This bird nests in a scrape on the ground, usually with good all round visibility. Nests are sometimes lined with some kind of vegetation, and quite often with no lining at all. Nesting is only attempted once each year, and if the nest fails they won't try again until the following year. Two to four eggs are laid during the summer months, and the eggs are very ovular, and vary from grey through to olive or brown, with darker blotches and speckling.

Comment: In the British Isles there are about ninety five, to ninety six thousand breeding pairs. Numbers are much increased in the winter by birds coming from other summer breeding grounds, there can be as many as three hundred and five thousand birds in the UK.