The Three-banded Plover is a small shorebird with a red eye-ring and black-and-white breast bands that searches for prey beside inland water.
Adults have a white forehead and supercilium, a red eye-ring, a red bill tipped in black, black-and-white breast bands, and pink legs.
It runs and stops along inland pools, rivers and other water edges to search for beetles, fly larvae, crustaceans and small molluscs.
In southern Africa it makes a shallow scrape in sand, shingle or dry mud near water. The nest may be lined with dry plant fragments, mud or pebbles.
In southern Africa it lays one or two eggs, and both parents incubate for about 26–28 days. The female incubates by day while the male defends the territory; at night they switch so the female can feed.
In southern Africa chicks are brooded often at first. They first fly at about 21–22 days old and can fly strongly nine or ten days later. They may stay with their parents until about 40–42 days old.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.