Two species of oystercatcher - torea & torea pango
Photographed at Ashley Estuary, Canterbury, New Zealand.
There are two species of oystercatcher in this picture. The pied birds are all torea (South Island Pied Oystercatcher, SIPO - Haematopus ostralegus) and are a subspecies of, and little different from, the pied oystercatcher found worldwide; the all-black birds are torea pango (variable oystercatcher - Haematopus unicolor) which are endemic to New Zealand.
Confusion arises because the variable oystercatcher also has a pied type which is very similar to the SIPO and can be hard to tell the difference. Further, at Ashley Estuary where these pictures were taken, hybridisation between the two species occurs which produces pied birds even harder to tell as to which species they belong to.There was one pied bird in this group (not photographed) that showed clear signs of being a hybrid.
Two species of oystercatcher - torea & torea pango
Photographed at Ashley Estuary, Canterbury, New Zealand.
There are two species of oystercatcher in this picture. The pied birds are all torea (South Island Pied Oystercatcher, SIPO - Haematopus ostralegus) and are a subspecies of, and little different from, the pied oystercatcher found worldwide; the all-black birds are torea pango (variable oystercatcher - Haematopus unicolor) which are endemic to New Zealand.
Confusion arises because the variable oystercatcher also has a pied type which is very similar to the SIPO and can be hard to tell the difference. Further, at Ashley Estuary where these pictures were taken, hybridisation between the two species occurs which produces pied birds even harder to tell as to which species they belong to.There was one pied bird in this group (not photographed) that showed clear signs of being a hybrid.