Waders Directory

The term ‘wader’ is synonymous with ‘shorebird’;  both are used around the world to refer to the same group of birds. All waders are within the order Chardriiformes. Formerly we considered waders to be birds in the sub-orders Charadrii and Scolopaci.

Orders

  • 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).

Sub-orders

  • 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).

Recently a worldwide taxonomy has been published, called AviList: A Unified Global Checklist of the World’s Birds. This was a combination of (most) of the main ornithological authorities coming together to make the list universal. This list, at least for now, does not break orders into sub-orders, freeing us up to count whatever we wish to count as waders, free from the constriction of trying to fit into scientific boxes. Hence what you see here in the Wader Directory are the species contained within the seminal book on waders Shorebirds (Hayman, Marchant & Prater) plus Plains Wanderer and the Sheathbills. We do now follow the scientific findings of Avilist regarding species/subspecies status.

Click on the picture to read more about each family.

JACANIDAE – Jacanas

 

Waders - South American Painted-snipe

ROSTRATULIDAE 

– Painted-snipes

Waders - Magellanic Oystercatcher

HAEMATOPODIDAE

– Oystercatchers 

Waders - Ibisbill

IBIDORHYNCHIDAE 

– Ibisbill 

Waders - Andean Avocet

RECURVIROSTRIDAE 

– Avocets and Stilts

Waders - Spotted Thick-knee

BURHINIDAE 

– Stone-curlews and Thick-knees

Egyptian Plover

PLUVIANIDAE

– Egyptian Plover

Crowned Lapwing

CHARADRIIDAE – pt. 1

Lapwings

CHARADRIIDAE – pt. 2

Tundra Plovers 

CHARADRIIDAE – pt. 3

Ringed Plovers

CHARADRIIDAE – pt. 4

Other Plovers

Waders - Magellanic Plover

PLUVIANELLIDAE 

Magellanic Plover

Waders - Long-billed Curlew

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 1

Curlews, Godwits and Upland Sandpiper

Waders - Nordmann's Greenshank

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 2

– Shanks, Tattlers and Polynesian Sandpipers

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 3

– Turnstones

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 4

– Phalaropes

Common Snipe

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 5 

– Woodcocks, Snipes and Dowitchers

Waders - Purple Sandpiper

SCOLOPACIDAE pt. 6 

– Calidrine Sandpipers 

Waders - Least Seedsnipe

THINOCORIDAE 

Seedsnipes

 

Waders - Greater Sheathbill

CHIONIDAE 

– Sheathbills

 

Waders - Plains-wanderer

PEDIONOMIDAE 

– Plains-wanderer

 

FORMERLY PLACED IN CHARADRII NOW MOVED TO LARI (GULLS AND ALLIES)

DROMADIDAE

– Crab Plover

GLAREOLIDAE

– Coursers and Pratincoles

TURNICIDAE

– Buttonquails