From October 2002 to April 2003, investigations were made at six monitoring sites with different degrees of human disturbance and habitat quality in Shengjin Lake to understand the impact of human disturbance and habitat evolvement on the distribution patterns of wintering water birds. The results showed that in the same wintering period, the species richness and population size of water birds at different sites had no significant correlation with habitat quality but significantly negatively correlated with human disturbance degree, while in different years, these two parameters were strongly correlated to habitat quality. The major threats to the water birds in Shengjin Lake were habitat loss, human disturbance and biocides, in light of which, corresponding protection measure were put forward.