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Abstract It is imperative to manage wetlands appropriately in the non‐breeding range of migratory shorebirds because their habitat quality impacts survival and reproductive performance. However, it is challenging to measure and relate these parameters to the habitat quality of individual sites because they are influenced by a composite contribution to fitness across all sites used in the annual cycle. Identifying important habitat quality features for shorebirds, and assessing whether management actions aimed at improving habitat quality are effective, poses a substantial challenge. Nonetheless, within a site, shorebird subsite selection and foraging behaviour could reveal variation in habitat quality proxies and suitability. We developed a field study to investigate habitat selection and habitat quality proxies for shorebirds in the Coorong, an internationally important non‐breeding site in Australia. We examined the abundance of shorebirds among multiple subsites in the wetland and their foraging behaviour in relation to multiple variables (potential habitat area, salinity, prey density, wind, temperature), the first three of which can be influenced by management. Larger potential habitat area, defined as the combined area of bare mud/sand and shallow water ( |
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