South Island Pied Oystercatcher

About the South Island Pied Oystercatcher

The South Island oystercatcher or South Island pied oystercatcher (Haematopus finschi) is one of two common oystercatcher species found in New Zealand. Its name is often contracted to the acronym "SIPO" (rhyming with "typo"). The indigenous Māori name is tōrea. The scientific name commemorates the German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839 – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig).

The South Island oystercatcher is easily identifiable as a pied oystercatcher – a large wader with striking black and white plumage, long red-orange bill, and red legs. It is distinguished from the pied morph of the variable oystercatcher by a white lower back, more white on the wing, and a demarcation line of black and white further forward on the breast, and from the pied oystercatcher of Australia by a longer bill and shorter legs, as well as the forward demarcation line of white on the back being pointed rather than square. It is 46 cm in length; its wingspan is 80–86 cm; it weighs 550 g.

The South Island oystercatcher is endemic to New Zealand where it breeds inland on the South Island, after which most... Wikipedia →