Some birds have names that don’t give you a clue who they are.

This one does.

The American oystercatcher, a crow-sized bird, named after one of its favorite foods, really does catch oysters, and much more.

These attractive shorebirds, who inhabit our beaches, tidal flats and marshlands, wield a unique blade-like bill that can crack open a smorgasbord of hard-shelled marine invertebrates such as mussels, clams, oysters, limpets, spiny sea urchins and starfish.

While herring gulls use paved roads, boulders or convenient hard surfaces like cement shuffleboards to break open clams and mussels, the American oystercatcher does one better.

“American Oystercatchers have two strategies for getting into shells,” Chris Elphick, UCONN assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said.

“Either they stab between the valves or shell halves of a bivalve and cut the adductor muscle that holds the two halves together, or they hammer the shell and break through it,” Elphick said.

Glenn Williams, an experienced Mystic birder, agreed with Elphick, adding, “Apparently, some birds have shorter and stouter bills better adapted to the hammer method and others have longer and thinner bills, better suited to prying.”

Williams, who is one of 12 committee members who review and maintain reports of rare bird sightings for the Avian Records Committee of Connecticut, calls the American oystercatcher “one of the more dramatic looking shorebirds, with their large size, long flashy orange bill and contrasting black and white colors.”

American oystercatchers live long lives — 10 or more years, Williams said, and stage in large numbers at Napatree Point in late August or early September after breeding.

“Their numbers can reach 100 there,” he said.

John James Audubon also was captivated by American oystercatchers.

In 1821, after completing an oil painting of one in Louisiana in which he added egg white to imitate the shiny, hard surface of the bird’s bill, Audubon, a careful observer of birds, wrote in his journal, “The oystercatcher walks with a certain dignity, greatly enhanced by its handsome plumage and remarkable bill.”

American oystercatchers begin breeding at age three or four and may mate for life.

In areas with high populations, they sometimes form trios, with one male and two females attending one or two nearby nests, according to the National Audubon Society.

Eggs are laid in scant “scrapes” in the sand, or on various beachfront detritus, and hatch within 24 to 28 days.

The chicks are fully feathered when born and leave the nest almost immediately, with first flight beginning in six weeks.

Are there challenges for these shorebirds? Definitely.

Storms and high tides wash out nests, critters like ghost crabs, gulls, raccoons and fox steal eggs and eat chicks, and six percent of nesting pairs abandon their nests due to human encroachment, according to U.S. National Park Service studies.

But the good news is, thanks to conservation efforts, the American oystercatcher population is doing “fairly well,” the National Audubon Society said.

About 11,000 birds are said to now inhabit the eastern United States (Atlantic and Gulf coasts).

“For context, that’s about the same as the number of bald eagles in the lower 48 states,” Elphick said.

Bill Hobbs is a resident of Stonington and a life-long wildlife enthusiast. For comments, he can be reached at whobbs246@gmail.com.