Shellfish open crack
beak jabbed inwards searching
otherwise the end
Erdos 2022
The American oystercatcher feeds almost exclusively on shellfish and other marine invertebrates.[8] Oysters are a staple of their diet, as their name suggests, but they also eat mussels, clams, limpets, sea urchins, starfish, crabs, and worms.[8] In general, they use their bills to catch shellfish. As they walk across a shellfish bed, they look for a mollusk with a partially opened shell. When they find one, they jab their bill into the shell and sever the muscle that causes the shell to clamp shut.[8] This can be dangerous, however, as they are sometimes drowned when they don’t completely sever this muscle and the shell clamps down on their bill. A strong, tightly rooted mollusk can hold the bird in place until the tide comes in.[8] They also feed by carrying loose shellfish out of the water and hammering at the shell or by probing the sand for soft-shell or razor clams.[8]