By Sally Siko

One of my favorite birds to see when visiting the coast of North Carolina are the American Oystercatchers.
I love that intense orange and red color in their eyes and bills! Although they are a relatively common sight, they never fail to capture my attention as they strut along the beach.

I recently photographed this lovely Oystercatcher on Wrightsville Beach while checking in on the nesting colony at the south end of the island.
Although it was super hot out there, it was well worth the time to get low on the sand to photograph these beauties.

American Oystercatchers are a year round resident of southeastern NC with several hundred of them choosing to spend the winter in the Ft.Fisher area each winter.
Each spring, they lay their eggs in shallow depressions in the sand among large nesting colonies of Terns, Skimmers and Plovers.
Unlike it’s nesting neighbors who hunt for fish above the water and dig for shellfish and marine worms on the sandy shoreline, Oystercatchers prefer to look for it’s namesake snack in exposed sand bars and mudflats during low tides. They’ll also forage on rocks, such as those found at jetties and around bridge pilings.
Aren’t they lovely?