The term habitat refers to the kind of place where an organism normally lives. It includes the arrangement of food, water, shelter and space that is suitable to meet an organism's needs. You can think of this as the "address" where an organism lives. In contrast, a niche is the "occupation" of an organism. It defines the role of an organism in an ecosystem, such as a "fish-eating wader" for a heron, or a "plant-juice-sipping summer buzzer" for a cicada. An organism's niche may change during different life stages. For example, a tadpole typically lives in the water and eats plant material, while the adult frog may catch insects from the shore