Waders Directory

The term ‘wader’ is synonymous with ‘shorebird’; both are used around the world to refer to the same group of birds. In scientific terms what we are referring to is the sub-orders Charadrii and Scolopaci within the order Charadriifomes. Formerly these birds have been contained in the order Limicolae within the sub orders; Limicolae (typical waders), Lari-Limicolae (pratincoles, coursers, sheathbills, Crab Plover) and Grui-Limicolae. (seedsnipes).

CHARADRIIFORMES Huxley 1867 – comprises; CHARADRII (plovers, thick-knees, oystercatchers, avocets), SCOLOPACI (jacanas, sandpipers, snipes) LARI (Crab Plover, pratincoles and coursers, terns, gulls, skuas, auks and buttonquails). What we term waders includes the Charadrii and Scolopaci. Some species previously thought of as waders (Crab Plover, pratincoles and coursers) were formerly part of the Charadrii but are now in Lari although some authorities and individuals still prefer to consider them to be waders. For the purposes of the Wader Directory, we only include those species currently in Charadrii and Scolopaci in the main section but retain those that have been removed to Lari at the end of the page.
CHARADRII Huxley 1867 – plovers, thick-knees, oystercatchers, avocets.
SCOLOPACI Stauch 1978 – jacanas, sandpipers, snipes.
LARI Sharpe, 1891 – Crab Plover, pratincoles, coursers, buttonquails (also; gulls, terns, skimmers, skuas, auks – not included on this website).