Waders are truly shore birds, specialized for feeding at the water’s edge. Most live along the mud flats, salt marshes, beaches inland. A typical wader has long, thin legs to walk in shallow water without getting its feathers wet, and a long, thin beak to jab and probe in soft mud or sand for worms, shellfish and other small creatures. Some waders have shorter beaks and peck rapidly for tiny creatures on the surface. Many waders breed in the Arctic during the brief summer, than travel or migrate south to spend the winter along the shores of milder regions.