Talk:Wader

North American synonym shorebird. Scolopacidae is the typical waders.jimfbleak 06:25 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC)

Boreal bias

A minor point for many, maybe, but I have changed 'wintering' in the article to 'spending the non-breeding season', which is more accurate and neutral, albeit more clunky. It would be nice to have a more concise term if someone can coin one. Many migratory waders spend the non-breeding season (and usually the greater part of the year) in the southern hemisphere where, of course, it is summer. An austral bias would be to say that the birds 'winter' in the northern hemisphere where they breed. Maias 00:53, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Since only a tiny number of species (two?) breed in the south and migrate to the northern hemisphere, surely the normal usage (ie spending the northern winter south of the equator) is clear and unambiguous? jimfbleak 06:46, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi Jim. I think the point is one of perspective and ambiguity rather than the proportion of species that breed in which hemisphere. For people in the southern hemisphere, migratory birds that spend the summer there are 'summering', not 'wintering'. There is no problem with birds that 'winter' within the NH (such as various species of geese from Iceland or Greenland moving to Britain, nor with part of the population of the NZ-breeding Double-banded Plover 'wintering' in SE Australia); the problem concerns interhemispheric movements. As someone involved in research on migratory waders in the SH, when they migrate northwards around March and April each year I see them as going to 'winter' (and breed) in the NH. Thus using 'winter' as a verb is, in such a context, ambiguous, and substituting an unambiguous phrase such as 'spending the non-breeding season' (or 'going to breed') is preferable. There is some discussion of this issue here --Maias 11:51, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough, but as you say, it's a bit clunky jimfbleak 13:18, 22 November 2006 (UTC)