Wintering birds of saltmarshes

Wildfowl

Wintering wildfowl including grazing ducks and geese such as Anas penelope and Branta bernicla bernicla may feed directly on grassy saltmarshes. Geese in particular seek out open areas with close cropped vegetation, as they prefer to be able to see potential predators.

Waders

Species of waders such as Calidris alpina and Calidris canutus feed on the adjacent mudflats in estuaries, using the saltmarsh for roosting at high tide or as supplementary feeding around the pans and bare areas on the marsh. Only Tringa totanus and Gallinago gallinago of the wading birds use saltmarsh in preference to the exposed tidal flat, possibly because they like to be sheltered from view by the cover of vegetation.

Passerines

Passerines such as skylark, twite, reed bunting, rock pipit and Calcarius lapponicus are also winter visitors to saltmarshes in Europe and large numbers of individuals can occur.