Black-tailed godwits are amber-listed waders that breed in small numbers in the UK and winter on southern estuaries — welfare science connects food availability, disturbance, and climate change to population recovery.
Godwit welfare is affected by both breeding and wintering ground quality. UK breeding birds require wet, traditionally managed grassland in the Wash and Somerset Levels. Drainage and intensification have reduced breeding habitat. Wintering birds depend on mudflat invertebrate abundance on southern estuaries. Disturbance from recreation forces birds to use energy reserves flying between roost and feeding sites. Estuarine water quality and invertebrate abundance directly determine individual winter survival.