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The acceleration of wetland loss on a global scale has frequently been reported in the past decades which is in correspondence with serious declines of migratory waterbirds. Indeed, the spatial distribution of waterbirds during migration has been shown to be associated with various predictors, ranging from feeding behaviours and migratory strategies to physical attributes of wetlands and spatial effects related to human disturbance. These results demonstrate that different constraints of ecology and life history may shape the effects of human disturbance on migratory water bird populations. In this work we analyse the role of ecological predictors and life history traits in shaping avian responsiveness to spatial attributes of artificial constructions in a phylogenetic context, using an extensive dataset of migratory water birds in Hortobágy, one of the most important stop-over sites in a major Afro-Eurasian flyway. Our study revealed that response to human disturbance factors such as the density and distance of public roads on larger spatial scales is predominantly related to life-history predictors such as the age of maturity, migration strategy and constrained by phylogenetic relatedness. Therefore we recommend that phylogenetic relatedness and life-history traits are considered when designing management plans for larger water bodies used by staging waterbirds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]