Stunning yellow-eyed creature returns for 21st year to Outer Banks, NC park says
.jpg "For the past 21 years, an American oystercatcher known as “AL” has returned annually to Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina to nest on the beach, the National Park Service says.")
For the past 21 years, one of the most consistent visitors along North Carolina’s Outer Banks has been a 2-foot tall bird with a bill the color of a solar flare.
AL, as she’s known to researchers, is an American oystercatcher and she recently defied odds by returning yet again, Cape Lookout National Seashore wrote in a May 21 Facebook post.
The park knows this because of bands fastened to AL’s spindly legs.
“Her green leg bands bearing the letters A, L, make it super easy for researchers and bird enthusiasts to spot her and record the date and location where they’ve seen her,” the park wrote.
“With her most-recent sighting at Cape Lookout National Seashore, we now know that AL is at least 21 years old! For a species with an average lifespan of around 17 years, AL is truly what legends are made of!”
American oystercatchers are a “high priority shorebird species” that is increasingly threatened by coastal development, according to the National Park Service. They nest in undeveloped beaches and their prescience — or lack of it — is considered a “measure of overall ecosystem well-being,” experts say.
“Many details about the American oystercatcher’s migration pattern remains a mystery to researchers,” the NPS says. “To learn more about their habits, many researchers band the birds, including Cape Lookout National Seashore, to track their migration patterns, and to see which birds stay in their nesting areas.”
AL was banded in 2005 while in Georgia and laid her first nest of eggs at Cape Lookout National Seashore in 2007, the park says.
“Since then, she has continued to spend her winters in Georgia, returning every summer to Cape Lookout to nest and raise her young,” the park reports.
It’s estimated AL has nested 29 times at the park (sometimes twice a season) and raised 11 chicks to fledgling (when they start to fly), officials say.
The name oystercatcher is appropriate for the birds, because they “use their long, knife-like bills to catch shellfish” and then hammer them open for meals, experts say.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Stunning yellow-eyed creature returns for 21st year to Outer Banks, NC park says."