[2] The scientific name commemorates the German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839 – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig).

Its breeding habitat comprises braided river systems, open paddocks, cultivated land, lake beaches, subalpine tundra, and herb fields.

Non-breeding habitat includes coastal estuaries, bays, beaches, sand flats, and intertidal mudflats.

[4] A major food source for oystercatchers is the New Zealand cockle, Austrovenus stutchburyi.

Larvae which infect cockles are eaten by the birds, which in turn lay eggs and are excreted by the oystercatchers.