Modelling small-scale foraging habitat use in breeding Eurasian oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) in relation to prey distribution and environmental predictors

- Habitat-use model for shorebirds based on prey base and abiotic predictors was set up.
- Birds identified most profitable patches at a very fine spatial scale.
- Thresholds of prey abundance and quality of the sites used by birds were predicted.
- Abiotic predictors alone explained habitat use to a wide degree.
- Management can use modelled habitat use as indicator for sites worthy of protection.