10 Species of Waders or Shorebirds in India

Shorebirds are known as Waders, commonly found wading along shorelines. There are around 210 species of wader birds in the world and some of the species such as Dunlin are strongly migratory to India and temperate regions. Here is the list of top 10 species of Waders or shorebirds found in India.

Lapwing

Lapwings are ground-nesting birds like plovers and the list of lapwing species found in India are Northern lapwing, Sociable lapwing,Red-wattled lapwing, Yellow-wattled lapwing and River lapwing.

Plover

Plovers are distributed group of wading birds and the species are from the same family of Charadriidae. Some of the most common species of plovers in India are Little ringed plover,Crab plover, sand plover and the migratory Kentish plover.

Sandpiper

Sandpipers are a large family of shorebirds which includes many species of birds and known as sandpipers.
There are many types of sandpipers found in India, including the common sandpiper, Marsh sandpiper and the spoon-billed sandpiper.

Common Redshank

The common redshank is also a wader bird and a migratory species, wintering on coasts around the Indian states. Redshanks have red legs and a black-tipped red bill also listed as very noisy birds.

Greenshank

Common Greenshank is one of the two species of greenshank bird found in India, This migratory species of bird wintering in Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Godwit

Godwits are large waders and very much different from the curlews, Black-tailed godwit is the species spend winter in India.
Limosa limosa is a long-legged, long-billed shorebird of India and mainly eat invertebrates worms and molluscs.

Curlew

Curlews are known group of nine species of wader birds and together with the godwits, enjoy a worldwide distribution.
Eurasian curlew is a very large wader bird found in India, even the largest wader in its range and a migratory species of bird in India.

Little Stint

Little stint is a very small species of wader bird and a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and India.
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary in Gujarat is best place in India to spot huge number of wader birds including 300 species of migratory birds.

Snipe

Painted-snipe is a short-legged, long-billed wading bird and the Rostratulidae or greater painted-snipe is the only snipe bird found in marshes of India.

Avocets and Stilts

Avocets and the stilts are from the family of Recurvirostridae and feed on aquatic animals such as mollusks, shrimp and small fish.

The Eurasian oystercatcher has striking black and white plumage with a long orange bill and is the most widespread species of the oystercatchers in the world.

Gulls and Terns are Seabirds, visit India during the winter season, follow the link to know more about the species of terns found in India.

Stone-curlew, pratincoles and the coursers are also from the family of wader birds but found on ground and wading birds such as storks and herons are known as shorebirds in America.