Oystercatcher – Hybrid (American-Black)

Haematopus palliatus x bachmani

Ranges of Black Oystercatchers and American Oystercatchers overlap along about 300 miles of the Pacific coast of Baja California. This is where hybridization between these two species will occur. They look more like the American Oystercatcher than the Black Oystercatcher. Their black head and neck feathers “dripping” onto the white breast of the hybrid birds separate them from the clean bibs of pure American Oystercatchers.

The early 20th century saw these birds nearly collected to death and extirpated from the region. Gradually, the populations seem to have recovered and stabilized. Now these birds are more common again.

These mixed gene birds occasionally wander through the San Diego coastlines, and further north. I met them along the coast of central Baja California during a seagoing science expedition to the Revillagigedo Archipelagos in February 2017.

.