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South Island Oystercatchers are medium-sized shorebirds. They have all black-and-white plumage. Head, neck and upperparts (mantle, wings and uppertail) are black, while the underparts (chest, belly, vent and underwing coverts) are white. The eye-rings and bill are bright red, while the legs and feet are pink. Juvenile South Island Oystercatchers have mottled grey-brownish to black upperparts.

Twitcher's tip

South Island Oystercatchers have a comparatively longer bill and shorter, stouter legs than Australian Pied Oystercatchers.

The correct identification of waders ("shorebirds"), e.g. of the Calidris, Tringa, Actitis and related families or of the Charadrius, Pluvialis and related genera in the field can be quite tricky. We have therefore made an attempt to give some advice HERE.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the South Island Oystercatcher is available HERE .

South Island Oystercatchers are mostly endemic to New Zealand and only occasionally migrate long-distance. They breed on New Zealand's South Island and disperse to the North Island outside the breeding season.

In Australia, South Island Oystercatchers are occasionally found as vagrants on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and rarely along the continental Australian East coast, from about Sydney, NSW, in the South, to Brisbane, QLD, in the North.

South Island Oystercatchers breed on braided inland river beds, fallow fields and pasture in New Zealand's South Island. Outside the breeding season they move to sandy beaches and spits, primarily on the North Island.

B. Hensen reports spotting South Island Oystercatchers at Moseley Park Swamp, Lord Howe Island, in November 2014. All photographic and sighting information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by B. Hensen.