Abstract: Extreme climate change has a significant impact on the hydrological rhythm of lakes, which further affects the spatial and temporal characteristics of wetland hydrological connectivity (HC), and may promote or inhibit the functional services of wetland ecosystems. The modified nearest water source distance method was used to characterize the HC of Poyang Lake. This method was defined as the nearest distance from any point of land and water to the water-land boundary. The spatial and temporal characteristics of HC and the influence of water level in Poyang Lake wetland were studied using remote sensing images during 2020 to 2022. The spatial differences of HC in the dish-shaped sub-lakes wetland and its impact on the protection of migratory birds were further revealed. The results found that the change of HC was controlled by the lake water level, and the seasonal characteristics of HC in Poyang Lake wetland were obvious. It was indicated that the HC followed a pattern of changing from weak to strong and then to weak, in response to the seasonal transition of lake water level of rising-flooding-falling. The interannual variation of HC was closely related to the lake water regime. Moreover, the interannual variation of HC in the rising and dry seasons was small, while the interannual variation of HC in the flooding and falling seasons was significant. The HC of Poyang Lake wetland demonstrated a spatial pattern of the strongest value in the northern lake area, followed by the value in the northeastern lake area. A larger variability was shown in the southern lake area. Affected by geographical location, topographic characteristics, human activities and lake water conditions, the clustering characteristics of HC for the dish-shaped sub-lakes wetland were obvious. The results confirmed that a moderate HC and large sub-lake area were conducive to the habitat of wintering migratory birds. The three types of dish-shaped lakes represented by Dahuchi Lake, Shahu Lake and Banghu Lake were the hot spots for wintering migratory birds. This study demonstrated that the modified nearest water source distance method was suitable for HC analysis of lake wetlands, based on remote sensing. The research results provided an important reference for the protection of wintering migratory birds in Poyang Lake and the approaches of assessing HC in floodplain wetlands in other areas.