Hubei province,located at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin,is an important foraging,breeding and wintering habitat for water birds in China.Up to now,most of the researches on water birds have been performed only in the nature reserve,the investigation on the community of water birds among the whole Hubei province has rarely reported.Most importantly,the global climate change and severe human activities in recent years have great influences on the habitat,community and quantity of water birds.Therefore,the community and quantity of water birds in the wetlands,Hubei province were investigated in this study from July to October in 2011.The survey field included 84 sites and 1 238 patches,covering 552 810.46 hm~2 of the wetlands,which is accounting for 40% of total area of the wetlands in Hubei province.The investigation results showed that a total 20 095 water birds,131 species,belonging to 21 families and 9 orders,were recorded in this survey.It is noted that Charadriiformes were identified as the most abundant species,which is including 48 species and 9 families,accounted for 36.6% of all counted water birds.Secondly,Anseriformes contained 34 species and 1 family,occupied 26.0% of the total species number.Besides,Pelecaniformes(20 species and 4 families),Gruiformes(17 species and 2 families),and Coraciiformes(5 species and 1 families) birds occupied 15.3%,12.98%,and 3.82% of the total number of species,respectively.According to the resident type of water birds,there are 62 species of winter visitors,32 species of summer visitors,14 species of residents,23 species of passage migrants,accounting for 47.3%,24.4%,10.7%,and 17.6% of the total number of species,respectively.Moreover,60 species of Palaearctic realm,38 species of wide distributed realm,and 33 species of Oriental realm were also recorded in this study.In comparison with the previous studies,4 species i.e.crested kingfisher(Megaceryle lugubris),pied kingfisher(Ceryle rudis),black-capped kingfisher(Halcyon pileata),and black-tailed godwit(Limosa limosa) were firstly recorded in Hubei province.Furthermore,among the investigated 131 species of the water birds,5 species are nationally protected as first-grade species in China,including oriental stork(Ciconia boyciana),black stork(Ciconia nigra),hooded crane(Grus monacha),siberian crane(Grus leucogeranus) and scaly-sided merganser(Mergus squamatus).In addition,17 species are nationally protected as second-grade species,including whooper swan(Cygnus cygnus),tundra swan(Cygnus columbianus),greater white-fronted goose(Anser albifrons),eurasian spoonbill(Platalea leucorodia),common crane(Grus grus),red-breasted goose(Branta ruficollis),mute swan(Cygnus olor),mandarin duck(Aix galericulata),white-eared night heron(Gorsachius magnificus),dalmatian pelican(Pelecanus crispus),little curlew(Numenius minutus),swinhoe's rail(Porzana exquisite),white-naped crane(Grus vipio),demoiselle crane(Anthropoides virgo),western osprey(Pandion haliatus),tawny fish owl(Ketupa flavipes) and brown fish owl(Ketupa zeylonensis).The results could enrich the list of water birds in the wetlands,Hubei province,and further provide the basis data for wetland protection and restoration in Hubei province.