Estuarine and coastal wading bird chicks face intense predation pressure and tidal hazards in the weeks between hatching and fledging, making their welfare management-intensive in many conservation areas.
Estuarine wader chick welfare is intensively managed on conservation reserves - and the management works. Reserves with predator control fencing, active water level management, and volunteer wardening consistently produce higher chick survival rates than unmanaged sites. Individual chicks that survive to fledging in managed areas represent welfare success stories made possible by ongoing management investment. The challenge is scaling this management from a few well-resourced reserves to the wider estuarine landscape where the majority of coastal wading birds attempt to breed.