---
title: "Scholekster"
description: "Haematopus ostralegus — Vogels. The Eurasian oystercatcher or European oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), also known as the common pied oystercatcher, or (in Europe) just oystercatcher, is a wader in the oystercatcher bird family Haematopodidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/eurasian-oystercatcher
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Scholekster

> Haematopus ostralegus — Vogels. The Eurasian oystercatcher or European oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), also known as the common pied oystercatcher, or (in Europe) just oystercatcher, is a wader in the oystercatcher bird family Haematopodidae.

- Scientific name: *Haematopus ostralegus*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `sea` (Zee en kust)
- iNaturalist observations: 48276
- Wikidata: [Q25928](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25928)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4843](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4843)

## Names

- en: Eurasian Oystercatcher
- de: Austernfischer
- es: Ostrero euroasiático
- fr: Huîtrier pie
- nl: Scholekster
- pt: Ostraceiro-europeu
- pl: Ostrygojad zwyczajny

## Countries with the most observations

GB (12956), RU (5486), DE (3607), NL (3554), NO (2309), FR (2121), IS (1814), FI (1700), DK (1496), IE (1297), IT (942), SE (930)

## Summary

The Eurasian oystercatcher or European oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), also known as the common pied oystercatcher, or (in Europe) just oystercatcher, is a wader in the oystercatcher bird family Haematopodidae. It has striking black and white plumage, a long straight orange-red bill, red eyes and relatively short dull pink legs. The sexes are similar in appearance but the bill of the female is longer than that of the male.
It is the most widespread of the oystercatchers, with four subspecies breeding in western Europe, central Eurosiberia, Kamchatka, China, and the western coast of Korea. No other oystercatcher…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_oystercatcher

## Photo

![Scholekster](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/eurasian-oystercatcher/medium.jpg)

Photo: Лариса Артемьева · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178564679

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/eurasian-oystercatcher?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).