Now officially known as "Eurasian", it will always be just Oystercatcher to Brits, but in fact is commonly found as far east as Central Asia, and coastally to India,
China, Korea and northern Africa. There are in fact four subspecies, which form two "groups", Eastern and Western. Whether any research has been done I don't know, but given the similarity of most oystercatchers, could
there be a potential split? European birds are commonly found, and breed, inland, but others seem to be coastal in the main. This is probably due to available habitat, but birds are migratory, and the 110,000
UK breeding pairs double their numbers in winter. The white collar is shared not only by immature birds, but also non-breeding adults, although breeding plumage can be seen all year round.
