A novel environmental DNA detection approach for the wading birds Platalea leucorodia, Recurvirostra avosetta and Tringa totanus

Wading birds play an important role in coastal and wetland ecosystems. As a result of anthropogenic disturbances, numbers of wading birds have declined over the past years, and therefore, the monitoring of bird species is crucial to preserve their habitats and counteract this. Due to known limitations of conventional monitoring, molecular approaches are increasingly becoming complementary methods. Thus, we evaluated the potential of an environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring approach for wading birds. We developed three species-specific primer sets for wading birds targeting the COI region. After examining the primers in silico and on extracted bird DNA, the primers were used to successfully amplify eDNA from water samples.