Guild structure and niche characteristics are important indicators to quantify the assemble process of animal community. It is of great significance to analysis bird guild structure and food resource partitioning for understanding ecological adaptability of different bird species in a community. The guild structure and niche characteristics of wintering waterbirds depend on the abundance and availability of food resources. In this study we divided the guild structure of waterbird community based on the data of foraging habitat and foraging behavior of wintering waterbirds collected at Lake Shengjin, and calculated the niche width and niche overlap using Levin's index and Pianka index. The results showed that the waterbirds at Lake Shengjin can be divided into four different foraging guilds, namely the G1, pickers in shallow-water, G2, pickers in grassland, G3, generalists and G4, divers. The species composition of foraging guilds in shallow and middle-depth water is richer than that in deep water. The niche width of G3 generalists is much higher than that of the other three specialized species guilds. In comparison, the foraging behavior of all waterbird species is more specialized, but the foraging habitat is more generalized. The niche intra-guild overlap of waterbird species is much higher than that of inter-guilds. The niche overlap of species in G3 generalist is lower than that in other specialized guilds. The results show that the guild structure of wintering waterbird community at Lake Shengjin mainly affected by the spatial allocation and availability of food resources. The information of water bird community structure and niche characteristics is of great significance for monitoring the quality of Lake Shengjin wetland and developing effective wetland protection strategies.