American Oystercatchers Are June Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar

Summary: American oystercatchers are June birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar with which the National Audubon Society alerts Unitedstatesians to vulnerable birds.

American oystercatchers and chick; Fort Tilden Beach; Sunday, July 26, 2020, 16:03: Rhododendrites, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

American oystercatchers are June birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar with which the National Audubon Society alerts Unitedstatesians to vulnerable birds abiding in, or accessing from Canada and Mexico, the United States.

Beachfront barnacle, bivalve and snail ponds and saltwater pools bring American oystercatchers a bit more inland from coastal mudflats, pebble and sand beaches and salt-marsh borders. Charadriiformes (from Greek χαραδριός, “Eurasian stone-curlew” [Burhinus oedicnemus scientifically] via Latin charadrius, “plover” and from Latin -fōrmēs, “-shaped”) shorebirds order members canvass Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. That order’s Haematopodidae (from Greek αἳμα, “blood” and πούς, “foot” and from Greek -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) oystercatcher family members defer to April-May breeding-season months.

American oystercatcher fathers-to-be and mothers-to-be annually establish low mounds or shallow scrapes on coastal rocks, pebble or sand beaches and dunes, salt-marsh borders or shingle beds.

Both parents finish the sandy, surface scrapes that they sometimes furnish, sometimes not, with beach debris, broken shells, dead plants and small stones as inner-hollow lining.

Physically and sexually mature three- to four-year-old American oystercatcher females annually gestate one two- to four-egg brood, followed by a second clutch if first-brood eggs fail. Their mates help them with 24- to 27-day incubations of brown, green or yellow, glossy, smooth, subelliptical to oval, 56- by 39-millimeter (2.21- by 1.53-inch) eggs. Egg surfaces sometimes impart buff, gray or stone tints to yellow backgrounds even as they usually include black-brown, bold blotches, spots or streaks of variable sizes.

American oystercatchers journey through life cycles, judged maximally at 17 years, during which extant populations join monthly pages to the 2022 Audubon calendar as June birds.

Precocial (from Latin praecox, “precocious, premature, ripe [before its time], untimely”) hatchlings kindle chiaroscuro impressions with brown eyes, gray-white feet and legs; and pink-based dark bills.

Each nestling’s crown, back and wings respectively lodge chiaroscuro (from Italian chiaro, “clear” and oscuro, “dark”) looks with one eye-nape, two longitudinal and one narrow lines. Father and mother American oystercatchers manage meals for nest-bound one- and two-day-olds even as three-plus-day-olds manage them when moving outside the nest with parents and siblings. Crouching motionless around predators and swimming versus having adult food-friendly, full-developed bills number among necessary survival skills of independent 35- to 37-day-olds versus 8- to 9-weeks-olds.

American oystercatchers offer physically and sexually mature occurrences as June birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar even as immature nestlings and juveniles occupy American oystercatcher flocks.

Juvenile American oystercatchers, between newborn and 9-week-old nestling periods and 3-plus-year-old mature periods, possess black-tipped orange bills, dark eyes, dull orange eye-rings and pale-fringed upper-part feathers.

Mature American oystercatchers quarter 15.5- to 17.5-inch (40- to 44-centimeter) lengths, 29- to 32-inch (73- to 81-centimeter) wingspans and 14- to 25-ounce (400- to 700-gram) weights. Their bulky, large bodies reveal carrot-orange, long bills; orange eye-rings; yellow eyes; black heads; black-brown upper-parts; white-barred wings; white underparts; and pink, thick legs and feet. Female and male adults sound descending, loud, wheeu whistles; piercing kleep calls; plover-like cle-ar calls; sharp wheep alarm calls; sharp- and swift-whistled, then descending-piped flight-display calls.

American oystercatchers turn up as June birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar and on American flyways from Canada southward almost all the way down American coastlines.

Range Map of American Oystercatchers; purple=year-round, orange=breeding, blue=non-breeding: Cephas, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

American oystercatchers and chick; Fort Tilden Beach; Sunday, July 26, 2020, 16:03: Rhododendrites, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_oystercatchers_at_Fort_Tilden_(60747).jpg

Range Map of American Oystercatchers; purple=year-round, orange=breeding, blue=non-breeding: Cephas, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haematopus_palliatus_map.svg

For further information:

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Marriner, Derdriu. 5 May 2022. "Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks Are May Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/05/rose-breasted-grosbeaks-are-may-birds.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 April 2022. "Crested Caracaras Appear as April Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/04/crested-caracaras-appear-as-april-birds.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 March 2022. "Cerulean Warblers Are March Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/cerulean-warblers-are-march-birds-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 February 2022. "Northern Bobwhites Are February Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/02/northern-bobwhites-are-february-birds.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 January 2022. "Florida Scrub-Jays Are January Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
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