Oyster Crossbill - a photo on Flickriver

Oyster Crossbill

            On our visit to the Northern Sea earlier this year, we saw a few (not many) Oystercatchers and what surprised me was that all of them had slightly crossed bills, like the one above.  It was so common that I had to check my memory and confirm in a guidebook that usually Oystercatchers have straight bills.  There is literature about different shapes and lengths of the bills in European Oystercatchers, and the relationship to food preference (pointed bills in Oystercatcher populations that prefer worms, more chisel-shaped ones in populations that hammer open clams). Unfortunately I have not found any scientific paper on a cross-billed morph.  There are a few reports in birding forums of single birds, some of them with even more of a crossed bill than the bird in the picture.  All of the Oystercatchers I have seen have been busy cracking open razor clams, and other mussels (I have not seen them attempt to hammer them open).  So maybe this bill shape provides an advantage there, similar to the advantage that pine crossbills get from the shape and form of their mandibles when opening up pine cones. 
   

Taken in: Germany / Lower Saxony / Landkreis Aurich / Norderney (show map)

Taken on: January 4, 2025

Tags:

Eurasian oystercatcher

Austernfischer

Huîtrier pie

Wader

Oystercatcher

Cross-billed

Bill shape

Schnabelform

Kreuzschnabel

Watvogel

Limikole

Regenpfeiferartige

Charadriiformes

Nationalpark Wattenmeer

Wadden sea

North Sea

Northern Germany

Norderney

Nordsee

Strand

Beach « less

Sets appears in: • Unusual Birds • Birds in Germany

Groups appears in: • BiRDS are Beautiful • Micro Four Thirds (Micro 4/3) more » • Nature and Animals (Wild Only) • Wildlife Photography Germany • The Wonder of Waterbirds « less

Camera: OM Digital Solutions OM-1, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, 420mm, ISO 2500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	OM Digital Solutions OM-1
Lens:	M.300mm F4.0 + MC-14
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	420mm
ISO:	2500
Exposure Bias:	+0.7 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Saturation:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 7.5 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 127 views / 4 comments

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