{"id":8068,"date":"2013-04-10T03:45:35","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T09:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8068"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:00:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:00:30","slug":"american-oystercatcher-with-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/10\/american-oystercatcher-with-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"American Oystercatcher With Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AmericanAmerican Oystercatcher with prey – Nikon D200, handheld,\u00a0f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

American Oystercatchers were\u00a0among my favorite shorebirds to photograph at Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach when I lived in Florida.<\/p>\n

Their bright orange bills, pink legs, black & white plumage and bright yellow eyes rimmed in red always fascinated me plus their behavior and distinctive call often amused me.<\/p>\n

I photographed this American Oystercatcher<\/span><\/a> as it hunted for prey in the shallow water of a tidal lagoon and was pleased to get this image with a tiny mollusk in its bill.<\/p>\n

I’ve been fairly busy recently, I hope to get caught up on thanking you all for the kind comments that you have left on my posts this past week.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Oystercatcher photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Oystercatchers were among my favorite shorebirds to photograph at Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach when I lived in Florida. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,25,704],"tags":[4004,3974,4039,4077,22,5988,3816,4106,274,4140,4236,3996],"class_list":["post-8068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-oystercatchers","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","tag-adult","tag-american-oystercatcher","tag-beach","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-haematopus-palliatus","tag-oystercatcher","tag-oystercatchers","tag-prey","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-tidal-lagoon","tag-walking","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-mia-mcpherson-1300.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-268","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35054,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/21\/a-juvenile-american-oystercatcher-on-the-shore-of-the-gulf\/","url_meta":{"origin":8068,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-feeding-adult-mia-mcpherson-6254.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-feeding-adult-mia-mcpherson-6254.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-feeding-adult-mia-mcpherson-6254.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-feeding-adult-mia-mcpherson-6254.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14399,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/02\/20\/american-oystercatcher-lift-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":8068,"position":3},"title":"American Oystercatcher Lift Off","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of two species of oystercatchers in North America the American Oystercatchers quickly stole my heart after I first saw them because of their colors, long bills, pink legs and their Goth-like black toenails.","rel":"","context":"In "American Oystercatchers"","block_context":{"text":"American Oystercatchers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-oystercatchers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Oystercatcher lift off for the beach at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-oystercatcher-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-6981.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-oystercatcher-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-6981.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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I enjoyed watching them pry open bivalves with their long bill","rel":"","context":"In "American Oystercatchers"","block_context":{"text":"American Oystercatchers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-oystercatchers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Strolling Oystercatcher at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-0345.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-0345.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-0345.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/american-oystercatcher-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-0345.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4447,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/19\/american-oystercatchers-feeding\/","url_meta":{"origin":8068,"position":5},"title":"American Oystercatchers Feeding","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I was laying down in the wet sand with my lens about an inch from the surface of the beach when I photographed these shorebirds, one needs to watch out for those rogue waves because they don't only wash away the bird's prey... they can soak your lens & camera\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Oystercatchers"","block_context":{"text":"American Oystercatchers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-oystercatchers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Oystercatcher with Pen shell, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/american-oystercatcher-shell-mia-mcpherson-6248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/american-oystercatcher-shell-mia-mcpherson-6248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/american-oystercatcher-shell-mia-mcpherson-6248.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/american-oystercatcher-shell-mia-mcpherson-6248.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}