Table 1 Synopsis of Color Characters in Oystercatchers (from Jehl 1985, Table 1) Jehl considered birds with character scores from 0-9 Black, 10-29 hybrids, and 30-38 American. CHARACTER CHARACTER STATE AND SCORE Upper tail coverts 0 black, as in bachmani 1 black, a few white mottlings 2 nearly equally black and white 3 white, a few black mottlings 4 white, as in palliatus Tail 0 black, as in bachmani 1 mainly black, trace of white at base of vanes 2 basal quarter of rectrices white 3 basal third of rectrices white 4 basal half of rectrices white, as in palliatus Chest 0 black, with black chest band extending smoothly onto mid-belly, as in bachmani 1 black chest band extending onto upper third of belly 2 black chest band extending onto upper quarter of belly 3 black chest band bordered by ragged edge on upper breast 4 black chest band sharply delimited from white of upper chest, as in palliatus Belly 0 blackish, as in bachmani 1 blackish, with traces of white on a few feathers 2 blackish, white area around crissum 3 three quarters black, one quarter white 4 nearly equally black and white 5 three quarters white, one quarter black 6 entirely white, as in palliatus Under tail coverts 0 entirely black, as in bachmani 1 mainly black with slight white mottling 2 nearly equally black and white 3 mainly white 4 entirely white, as in palliatus Thighs 0 entirely black, as in bachmani 1 black with grayish underdown, not noticable externally 2 puffs of grayish down noticeable 3 mainly white 4 entirely white, as in palliatus Greater secondary coverts 0 lacking, as in bachmani (width of white edging 1 less than 2 mm in folded wing) 2 2-5 mm 3 6-15 mm 4 more than 15 mm Extent of white wing stripe 0 lacking, as in bachmani 1 white markings confined to inner half of secondaries 2 white markings extend to outer secondaries, but not onto primaries 3 white present on some or all of inner five primaries 4 white present on at least one of primaries 6-10 Underwing coverts 0 entirely black, as in bachmani 1 mainly black, some white mottling 2 nearly equally black and white 3 mainly white 4 white, as in palliatus Axillars 0 black, as in bachmani 1 mainly black, some white mottling 2 nearly equally black and white 3 mainly white 4 white, as in palliatus