Salt marshes provide important foraging habitats for wading birds (Ardeidae), and it has been suggested that the lack of suitable marsh habitats can limit the size of wading bird populations. It is therefore important to be able to accurately assess wading bird use of salt marshes over multiple spatial and temporal scales. The goal of this study was to determine how wading bird utilization of Narragansett Bay, RI salt marshes is affected by changing tide levels. Bird surveys were conducted across the tidal range at three different marshes. Wading birds foraged over much of the tidal cycle, but reverted to increased loafing during mid-tides when shallow foraging habitats were limited. Birds foraged in increasingly deeper water at higher tide stages rather than seeking out consistently shallow water over the tidal period. At Round Marsh, the primary study site, bird abundances were significantly related to tidal stages, but different patterns were observed at two additional sites. Wading bird abundance appears to depend on the availability of habitats that provide shallow foraging areas across tidal stages. Results from this study can be used to improve wading bird monitoring protocols and field studies on wading birds in salt marshes by ensuring that tidal stage is accounted for.