Waders are birds of the order Charadriiformes whose reference as such is inspired by the name wade, meaning that they move in water and most have webbed feet. A good number of them a partially webbed and suit its environment and feeding habits; of fishing and hunting offshore. Waders are mostly associated with coastal environments and wetlands, but not all of them are specific to these two climatic conditions. There are some waders that are found in the arctic too. They migrate, mostly following the migratory patterns of their prey and the rainfall patterns, since most of them favor high waters with low temperatures to enable them to catch their prey.

Depending on the specific adaptations of a bird species, one can tell whether the bird flies over long distances or if it is a short distance migratory bird. A long wing span and large wings is an indicator of a high altitude long distance migratory bird, the opposite being true of the short distance low low altitude migratory wader.The arctic waders migrate to the Southern hemisphere in pursuit of warmth in order to breed.

Amongst the foods that waders eat are insects and other invertebrates. For this purpose, most waders have beaks that are specialized in picking the invertebrates from mounds f soil or from shallow waters. The length of the bill will enable a wader to pick worms from mud. Some of the prey includes crabs and the crab plover has been made to pick them easily by its beak which is relatively short and wide and also very strong.

The waders are all shapes and sizes of birds. They are well adapted to the lifestyles they lead, eating invertebrates and some vertebrates alike. The Auks are excellent waders which live in cool environments. They are also excellent divers and are among one of the very few species of birds that can dive to depths of up to 100 meters in pursuit of a meal. This has been made possible by their webbed feet. They are relatively large in size and have small wings. Most of them cannot fly as their wings are not string enough to take them far There are small species of waders found in the coast which is a habitat of some of the preys of the waders. They feed off the shallow water and the mud. The smallest wader is the weighs in at 15.5 grams and measures just over 5 inches.

Waders belong to the Ciconiiformes order which has many sub orders. Before this classification, the waders belonged to the suborder Charadrii which was later changed to include other suborders as the waders have distinct characteristic from one another and could not be grouped together. The new classification suggests that the waders belong to four distinct suborders, with the suborder chinidi being one of them. The old way of classification classified the chionis with the charadrii and the scolopaci with the thinocori. The thinicori suborder has several families which include the Family Rostratulidae Family Jacanidae and the Family Pedionomidae. The order chionidi on the other hand include the family Burhinidae Family Chionididae: and the Family Pluvianellidae