SHORT ANSWER: Nothing the two words are synonymous.

LONG ANSWER: Whilst wader and shorebird are synonymous when referring to the group of birds in the sub-order Charadrii, they can mean different things in different places. For example, in the Americas where the Charadrii are generally referred to as shorebirds, the term wader is also in wider use but refers to any bird that wades. This includes birds such as herons, ibises, storks spoonbills etc. Conversely, elsewhere, particularly in the UK, although shorebird is widely understood to mean the same as wader, there is some confusion in that shore birds (two words) are basically any bird that frequents the shore and can be anything from ducks, through waders, to terns, gulls and auks.

Some argue that wader is not a good term as not all waders, wade. This is certainly true but the counterpoint that not all shorebirds frequent the shore is equally true. As the taxonomists increased the number of species included within this suborder, then so did the variety of lifestyles present in the group. Now neither word is universally apt but their widespread use means that both are here to stay and there is actually no real alternative that makes any sense, given the range of species involved.

Neither shorebird nor wader is more correct than the other, so it is purely a matter of personal choice, or local custom, which determines the name you use. Some use both, as we do, but in the end they all refer to the same eclectic bunch of birds housed within the sub-order Charadrii.

SHORT ANSWER: ‘An Inspiration of waders’ is the collective noun for a mixed or unidentified flock of waders swirling in flight over estuaries and anywhere waders gather in large numbers, around the world.

LONG ANSWER: What would you call a mixed or unidentified aggregation of wader species swirling in flight over your favourite estuary? What collective noun could do justice to these spectacular formations of birds tied together by invisible threads wheeling, swishing and pirouetting over an estuary when they rise up with a thunderclap of simultaneous wing beats, like dry leaves lifted from a forest floor by a sudden gust of wind.

Even if you have experienced this many times before, each time it feels different, an infinite number of shapes and forms painted like a living fresco in the vaulted ceiling of the cathedral skies above you. Just sitting there, in awe of this exuberant demonstration of the power and beauty bestowed upon the natural realm around us, it becomes clear that a world that did not contain such events would be an impoverished one indeed. Each of those birds will soon be risking everything to return to their breeding grounds to try, against the odds, to replace themselves before they die, simply to maintain their species.

So I ask again, what do you call this inspiring phenomenon? The most likely answer I would expect to hear would be ‘a flock of waders’. Waders though, have inspired us in so many ways throughout history in; art – from cave paintings, through the Egyptian frescos and the great masters to modern day artists; literature – from novels to works of fiction revolving around waders and their lives; poetry – from very ancient times to the present day; music – from classical to pop and some anthems written to certain species. In addition waders are represented in some of our myths and legends, ancient stories like that of the Easter Bunny to the urban legend that Egyptian Plovers feed in sleeping Crocodile’s mouths. These birds are steeped in our culture. Given this connection I put it to you that when you come across a multitude of them dashing as one, living, being over the estuary, describing impossible turns and manoeuvres, flashing from dark to light as they go, that calling them ‘a flock’ is inadequate. That collective noun may be suitable for a bunch of random sheep on a hillside or an unruly gang of pigeons in a town square, but surely not noble or expressive enough for our majestic waders.

What about calling it ‘a murmuration’, usurping the collective noun for European Starlings? That is overtly wrong and it would be no less wrong to usurp one that is used for a specific wader species that has inspired us to select, invent or adopt for them. Some of these are blindingly obvious, such as ‘a pack of knots’, some are rather insulting like ‘a deceit of lapwings’, others are entirely mystifying, witness ‘an omniscience of godwits’. We have collective nouns for many things, but somehow, one of the most striking and spectacular of life’s experiences with waders has hitherto gone unrecognised in this way.

Is this because we cannot be sure exactly what we are watching? What species make up these swirling gyrations? Often they may be just one species, maybe they are all Knots, in which case we could call it ‘a pack’, but can we be sure when watching so many birds at once that they are all the same? It might be that those Red Knots are actually Dunlins, or Knots and Dunlins, in the thousands of beating wings some may actually be attached to Bar-tailed Godwits and plovers, be they Common Ringed or Grey. Perhaps, unnoticed a few Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones are scooped up in the throng around the periphery or lost in the middle of the heaving mass of birds; now they defy our attempts to give them a name, and so it seems we have never tried.

But surely this is a phenomenon that deserves better? It is one of nature’s most engaging and breath-taking experiences to sit beside an estuary and witness this tableau in motion. This is an entreaty to the world at large to give this amazing spectacle a name. So what are we to call this mixed or unidentified group of waders speeding above the ebbing and flowing estuary waters? May I be so bold as to humbly submit that such magical gatherings of the birds that have been inspiring us since we came down from the trees, should be respectfully, and reverently, referred to as………………………….. ‘an Inspiration of Waders’.

SHORT ANSWER: There are 238 species of wader in the world.

LONG ANSWER: To know more about the different species of wader in the world, visit the Wader Directory, or click here to read more.

SHORT ANSWER: There are 80 species on the official British Ornithologists’ Union list.

LONG ANSWER: Whilst there are currently 80 species on the British list you cant expect to see them all every year and one will never again appear on our shores, nor any other shores for that matter, due to being extinct. That unfortunate species is the Eskimo Curlew, which, as a result of it’s extinct status (Critically Endangered on IUCN list), is the only wader on the list not on Category A, but on Category B. Only 7 records exist of this once abundant bird of the Americas between 1852 and 1887. They must have occurred more often than reported when in their hey-day as their migration route follows that of the American Golden Plover that is a regular, if scarce, visitor. The last record was on the Isles of Scilly. The closely related, and equally unfortunate (for the same reason), Slender-billed Curlew is not on the official list, however, a number of people believe a record of this species in Druridge Pools, Northumberland on 4th-7th May 1998 is credible. It was originally accepted by the BOURC, but was later removed in 2014.

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SHORT ANSWER:
Most endangered breeder (rare): Purple Sandpiper
Most endangered breeder (steepest decline): Eurasian Curlew
Most endangered regular non breeder: Bar-tailed Godwit and Red Knot
Most endangered regular passage species: Curlew Sandpiper
Most endangered accidental: Sociable Lapwing

LONG ANSWER: This is actually a multi faceted question as endangered can have different connotations as far the status of a species in any one country is concerned. In the UK birds are categorised as Red, Amber or Green.
• Red List is a list of birds in most urgent need of our help. It includes some of our rarest birds, but also familiar birds, which have suffered huge declines.
• Amber is used to highlight birds whose conservation status is of moderate concern.
• Green represents species that are not in danger or declining rapidly

The first aspect is the most endangered breeding species. For this category we are considering those that regularly breed, discounting those that have historically bred or do so sporadically. Within this context there are two things to look at. One is the likelihood of the species becoming extinct in the UK in the near future, but which may or may not be threatened elsewhere, the other is the species which is declining most rapidly within the UK. For these answers we refer to the UK Red List and find that there are, alarmingly, 11 species of wader on that list. They are:

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SHORT ANSWER: The Far Eastern Curlew

LONG ANSWER: The largest wader in the world is the Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis, which measures from tip of the bill to the end of the tail 166 cm. Of course they are not all that size, females are larger than males and they too vary in size. The figure of 166 is the largest in the range as generally accepted in the literature. However they are not hugely different in size to the Long-billed Curlew Numenius americanus, which measures just one centimetre shorter at 165 cm. Again this refers to the largest in the range and will be a female. Interestingly neither of these is the heaviest species in the world. That honour lies with another curlew, the Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata. The heaviest recorded is a whopping 1360 grams. In second place weightwise is the Far Eastern Curlew narrowly less at 1350 grams. The second longest species, Longbilled Curlew, is relegated to third place being an altogether more delicate species, its length truly is in its bill, weighing in as 951 grams. Similar topics: Which is the world’s smallest wader/ shorebird? Sources: del Hoyo et al.: Handbook of the birds of the World Vol. III (1996) Hayman et al.: Shorebirds and identification Guide to the Waders of the World (1986)

SHORT ANSWER: The Little Stint

LONG ANSWER: The smallest wader in the world is the Little Stint, which measures just 12-14 cm from the tip of its bill to the end of its tail. cm It weighs in at a minimum (adult) of just 17 grams. This statistic is not however universally quoted and some authors have the Least Sandpiper as smaller.

Shorebirds of the Northern Hemisphere has all of the smaller Calidris Sandpipers as the same minimum length of 13 cm, but gives the wing span of Least Sandpiper as 28 cm and Little Stint as 30 cm, thus making Least the smallest. If we refer back to Witherby’s The Handbook of British Birds we find that in the measurements of the Little Stint and Least Sandpiper (which is referred to there as the American Stint) in wing, tarsus and bill, Least Sandpiper is consistently smaller. The Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa – The Birds of the Western Palearctic has the following; Least Sandpiper 11-12 cm with a wing of 33-35 and Little Stint 12-14 cm and wing of 34-37. Whilst the comparative sizes of these species does vary, it is clear that in most cases the Least Sandpiper is indeed the smallest.

Sources:
Chandler: Shorebirds of the Northern Hemisphere (2009)
Cramp et al.: Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa – The Birds of the Western Palearctic Vol III (1983)
del Hoyo et al.: Handbook of the birds of the World Vol. III (1996)
Hayman et al.: Shorebirds and identification Guide to the Waders of the World (1986)
Snow et al.: The Birds of the Western Palearctic Concise Edition Vol. I (1998)
Witherby et al.: The Handbook of British Birds (1940)

SHORT ANSWER: 13,050 kilometres / 8,109 miles by a Bar-tailed Godwit.

LONG ANSWER: A Bar-tailed Godwit holds the record for the longest known, non-stop flight of any land bird. The birds of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri breed in Alaska and Siberia and winter in New Zealand and Australia. A satellite tracking study of these birds has been carried out by the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre since 2007.

These godwits have a history of breaking records. The first t ime a flight from Alaska to New Zealand was recorded, and therefore proven, was in 2007 when a bird named E7 made the flight of 11,570 km / 7,190 miles in 8.5 days. That record was broken in 2020 by a bird known as 4BBRW, its title referring to the colour rings attached to its legs by researchers, when it arrived in New Zealand after a 12,199 km / 7,580 mile flight. However the same bird surpassed itself in 2021 when it ended up in New South Wales in Australia instead of New Zealand having travelled 13,050 km / 8,109 miles in just under 10 days. The flight had a duration of 239 hours with the bird averaging 55 kph land speed.

Further to this information concerning the longest direct flight, the same species (and subspecies) gets pipped at the post for the longest overall return flight of any wader. On average the distances travelled by the Godwit on its elliptical migration route can be around 29,000 km / 18,020 miles (see Fig 1). However the Red Knot, which travels between Arctic Canada and Patagonia each year, has a return trip of around 32,000 km / 19,884 miles. (see Fig 2.) One bird was known to live for at least 22 years and so in that time had travelled some 704,000 km / 437,445 miles. The distance from the earth to the moon is 384,400 km / 238,855 miles so this bird, once it had flown that distance, received the moniker ‘Moonbird’ and it then went on to fly almost the same distance back again. This famous bird had an eponymous book written about it.

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SHORT ANSWER: The Dunlin Calidris alpina is sometimes called ’Plover’s page’ because of its close association with the European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria.

LONG ANSWER: Associations between different wader species are not uncommon, especially in those species breeding in the Arctic tundra. There are two main reasons for this happening. A timid species may gain protection from a bolder species that is accustomed to giving a staunch defence of its territory against predators, or, one species may benefit from the other as an early warning system. Grey Plovers Pluvialis squatarola are one such bold species and they have smaller less feisty species sometimes nesting close to them (Curlew Sandpipers Calidris ferruginea for example) in order to benefit from this defence of a territory from predators by the stronger bird.

The European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria (hereafter Golden Plover) is not a bold species but is itself rather timid, so clearly that is not a reason for another species to associate with it. In the case of the Golden Plover, one species is particularly known to stick close to it, especially on the breeding grounds, and that is the Dunlin Calidris alpina. So frequent is this pairing that in some places the Dunlin has been named ‘Plover’s Page’ or ‘Plover’s Provider’. Indeed the name for Dunlin in Iceland is Lóuþræll, which means ‘Plover’s slave’.

To understand why it is so named you need to understand historically what a page is, or does. In Medieval times it was a young boy between the ages of 7 and 14 who was in the service of a nobleman or knight. In return for clothing, board and lodging they would work without pay for the nobleman, who, in addition to keeping the boy fed and clothed, would be responsible for teaching him all the trappings and functions of nobility, with a view to the boy perhaps being knighted himself one day. As a result the page was in close attendance to the nobleman at all times, except in battle. Dunlins have been observed keeping in close contact with Golden Plovers in this way, giving the impression that they are ‘in the service’ of the Golden Plover. In fact, there is almost certainly no benefit to the Golden Plover at all and this relationship is probably detrimental to their well-being.

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