Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several shorebirds of the genus Haematopus, having black or black-and-white plumage and a long, heavy orange bill and feeding on mollusks, crustaceans, and other small invertebrates.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A maritime wading bird of the family Hæmatopodidæ: so called from the habit of feeding upon small oysters and other mollusks.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of wading birds of the genus Hæmatopus having stout legs and bill and mostly black-and-white plumage, which frequent seashores and feed upon oysters and other shellfish. The European species (Hæmatopus ostralegus), the common American species (Hæmatopus palliatus), and the California, or black, oyster catcher (Hæmatopus Bachmani) are the best known.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several black or pied coastal wading birds in the genus Haematopus that have a long red or orange bill and feed on shellfish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun black-and-white shorebird with stout legs and bill; feed on oysters etc.
  • noun black-and-white shorebird with stout legs and bill; feed on oysters etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the belief that the birds eat mainly oysters, since they are often seen feeding on mollusk beds although they very rarely if ever take oysters.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

oyster +‎ catcher

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