Waders, gulls and terns

Families and genera in this order

• Plovers and allies CharadriiPlovers, lapwings, oystercatchers, avocets, stilts, thick-knees and the sheathbills of the southern coasts: waders that see their prey instead of feeling for it. Hence the large eyes, the short bill and the characteristic run-stop-peck gait - a plover standing still is a plover looking.
• Avocets and stilts Recurvirostridae 2 speciesHimantopus · Recurvirostra
• Oystercatchers Haematopodidae 1 speciesHaematopus
• Plovers and lapwings Charadriidae 7 speciesAnarhynchus · Charadrius · Eudromias · Pluvialis · Vanellus
• Sandpipers and snipes ScolopaciSandpipers, snipes, curlews, godwits, shanks, phalaropes and jacanas: waders that probe the ground with a long, sensitive bill. The bill tip carries pressure sensors with which they locate a worm in the mud without ever seeing it - which is why they feed as well in the dark as by day.
• Sandpipers and snipes Scolopacidae 24 speciesActitis · Arenaria · Calidris · Gallinago · Limosa · Lymnocryptes · Numenius · Phalaropus · Scolopax · Tringa
• Gulls, terns and auks LariGulls, terns, skuas, auks, pratincoles, the crab-plover and - entirely unexpectedly - the buttonquails. This is the branch of the waders that are not tied to the shoreline: here sit the species that hunt on the open sea and can rest afloat, the auks even rowing with their wings underwater.
• Skuas Stercorariidae 4 speciesStercorarius
• Auks Alcidae 4 speciesAlca · Alle · Fratercula · Uria
• Gulls and terns Laridae 19 speciesChlidonias · Chroicocephalus · Gelochelidon · Hydrocoloeus · Hydroprogne · Ichthyaetus · Larus · Rissa · Sterna · Sternula · Thalasseus