Is there a new species of oystercatchers being seen in Wales?

Certainly startled birdwatchers have been giving very detailed reports of a brightly-colored new visitor. A new species in the UK? How exciting.

The new birds, scores of them, appeared to be a yellow-breasted oystercatcher. The oystercatchers are a group of shore waders of the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus.

The known Haematopus from Wales is decidedly white-breasted, as shown below:

However, it turns out that the yellow-breasts were only dye painted on over a hundred normally-colored oystercatchers for a tracking project off the Gower coast. The birds’ normally white breasts were dyed yellow to make them easy to spot.

Birdwatchers, unaware of the project, thought they had discovered a new species.

The joint tracking project between the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and the British Trust for Ornithology aims to shed light on their movements.

A team of ornithologists spent a day at Whiteford Burrows National Nature Reserve, on Gower, catching, ringing, and marking 136 birds.

Pembrey County Park ranger David Hughes said: “Information gathered will be tied in with other surveys enabling an overview of the bird’s movements. They have been spotted as far away as Dale in Pembrokeshire – that’s 65-miles – and Mumbles on Gower. Park visitors get quite excited if they spot the birds and are unaware of the project believing their have spotted a new species.”

He said some had also raised concerns the dye would hurt the oystercatchers when preening.

“The dye used is picric acid. It is harmless and will last the winter but will be lost when the birds naturally shed the feathers in moult before the summer,” added Mr. Hughes.

He said for the project to be a success they needed help from members of the public who spot one.“Painted birds confuse twitchers,” BBC News, 9 Feb. 2008.