Black Oystercatcher Canvas Print

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)
Anyone who is alert to the natural world and enjoys seeing wildlife, and has visited rocky Pacific coast shoreline from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska south to the coast of Baja California, Mexico, has almost certainly seen this distinctive shorebird, the Black Oystercatcher (Haemotopus bachmani). It weighs about 500 to 700 grams, or about a pound to a pound and a half. Their plumage is a funereal drab black with a brownish wash to the back and wing coverts, and a bit of a blue or blue-purplish wash, variably, to the head, neck, and upper breast, but under most lighting conditions they look dull black. The un-feathered parts (which birders and ornithologists call the “soft parts”) are quite vivid, the feet usually a pearlescent pink color, the beak bright red, as is the narrow bare ring around the eye. The pupil is yellow. In many individuals there is a dark blackish-brown spot of pigment on the iris, just in front of the pup...

Renowned Canadian bird artist, writer, naturalist, and conservationist, Barry Kent MacKay has “always been an admirer of birds, anxious to see them, paint them, and care for them.” Barry’s biological and ecological accuracy has put him in demand for commissions, to illustrate books, scientific journals and various print and digital media. He has painted birds and other wildlife from around the world, often life size, working in oils, watercolours, and acrylics. He prefers to sell original art, and keeps prices low. “Actual, original art should be affordable for middle class buyers,” he says. “I avoid having to depend on selling reproductions so that the market does not dictate what I paint, which can often be little-known...