Colonial nesting waterbirds including herons, egrets, and cormorants face welfare threats from human disturbance at nesting colonies and conflict with fisheries interests.
Colonial waterbird welfare is threatened by two primary human impacts. Disturbance at nesting colonies — from recreation, photography, or deliberate harassment — causes chicks to fall from nests and eggs to chill during parental absence. Predator attraction to disturbed sites causes nest losses at scale. Cormorant and heron culling for fisheries conflict management — based on often-exaggerated impact estimates — kills thousands of birds annually. The welfare case for protecting colonial waterbird nesting sites is strong: these are long-lived, socially complex birds whose breeding success is sensitive to human intrusion during a relatively brief critical period.