Eurasian Oystercatcher
Haematopus ostralegus
Strandskaden er en vadefugl med en karakteristisk sort og hvid fjerdragt og røde ben og næb. Fuglen yngler i adskilte områder fra Vesteuropa til Østasien samt på New Zealand.
Unmistakable: black above and white below, with a long, straight, orange-red and laterally flattened bill, shortish pink legs and a red eye. Broad white wing bars flash against the black in flight.
Plumage and variation
Male and female: Sexes alike; the female’s bill distinctly longer.
Summer and winter: Winter birds gain a white throat collar — immatures keep it longer.
Juvenile: Juvenile is browner with a duller bill and the white collar.
Voice
Loud, piercing pipes — a "kubeek" building into a trilled piping when birds meet.
Behaviour
Gregarious and noisy. Birds split by inherited technique: some hammer or prise mussels with the flattened bill, others dig worms — the young learn the parents’ method.
When and where
A common breeder along the coasts — and on flat town roofs and inland waters. The breeding population fell 20–30 percent 1999–2011; most Danish birds winter in the Wadden Sea to the south.
Facts
Wingspan
82 cm
Conservation status
næsten truet
Relatives
Family
oystercatchers
Haematopodidae
Order
waders, gulls and auks
Charadriiformes
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