Migratory wading birds depend on estuarine mudflats as critical refuelling and wintering sites. Habitat loss and human disturbance threaten the welfare of millions of individual birds during vulnerable periods.
For migratory wading birds, estuarine welfare is a matter of survival arithmetic. Birds that arrive at wintering grounds after long migrations need to consume enough food to maintain body condition through winter and fuel their return migration. Disturbance events that force repeated flushing of feeding flocks impose direct welfare costs through forced energy expenditure. For birds already operating close to energy balance limits in cold winters, even modest disturbance can tip individuals into negative condition from which they cannot recover. Protecting critical feeding and roosting sites from unnecessary disturbance is both a welfare intervention and a conservation necessity.