Around 95 species have been seen on the Estuary, which means the area holds one of the highest bird diversities in the country.
 
Shorebirds are some of the special birds found at the Estuary. These are wading birds, most of whom live in wetland or coastal areas. Shorebirds usually feed by picking invertebrates or molluscs out of the substrate of rivers, lakes, or coasts which usually involves some wading, hence their alternative name of waders.
 
The sandspit at Foxton Beach is the best place to view shorebirds and this is easily done at high tide from the viewing platform on Dawick Street. At this time birds are mostly resting and are easy to observe and you may even be lucky enough to spot something out of the ordinary. When the tide is lower, birds can be seen feeding on the extensive mudflats.

Some species are exclusively estuarine (feeding only on the Estuary mudflats) but some species can also be seen all along the Manawatū River. Many of the Estuary shorebirds are migratory arriving in good numbers for our summer while some Aotearoa New Zealand birds, like the Wrybill winter in the Estuary and then fly to the South Island to breed in our summer. Long distance travelers, such as the Bar-tailed Godwits are our renowned summer visitors, before returning to the Arctic for the northern summer to breed. As well as waders, seabirds and wetland birds are present at the Estuary. 

A national wader count is carried out twice a year to monitor long-term trends in the wader population at the Manawatū Estuary. Click here to find out more about the wader counts.

A checklist of species recorded from the area is included here. Information is basic and continually up-dated with links given by the usual method to a wealth of additional information. Headings and columns A and B are locked, so are always visible. This checklist follows a recognised international format and may not follow any that are used in Aotearoa New Zealand. Web address links are edited to fit within the static species columns. List can be downloaded and additions for personal use be "save as". These will not be saved to web.