Watch an Oystercatcher Chick Hatching on the Peak District Moors

There are few better signs of a healthy upland landscape than the arrival of new life, and one of our Peak District gamekeepers was recently treated to exactly that during his daily rounds.

After around 25 days of incubation by both adult birds, a routine nest check revealed the first oystercatcher chick successfully emerging from its egg. It is staggering how such a large chick manages to contort its limbs into the egg during the development process. Look closely and the egg tooth is visible on the tip of its upper beak, the small point the chick uses to chip its way out of the shell.

The inspection took just 30 seconds. It is part of the keeper's regular work routine, which takes him past this nest and others being monitored as part of a wider scheme. The remaining two eggs were already "chipping" at the time of the visit, on the verge of hatching themselves.

Oystercatcher chicks are classed as semiprecocial, which means they hatch with their eyes open, covered in down, and are able to walk shortly after drying off. This is in contrast to altricial chicks, which are born with their eyes closed and relatively helpless.

What makes oystercatcher chicks particularly unusual is that they cannot forage for food themselves until they are a few weeks old. Instead, the adult birds feed them directly on a diet of invertebrates. Every other wader chick starts foraging straight away, moving around and feeding itself almost from the moment it hatches.

It is a small but special moment, and a reminder of the rich birdlife that thrives on managed moorland, and of the quiet, careful monitoring work that goes on behind the scenes every single day.