A small plover that winters in Hong Kong. Breeding males show black markings on the head.
In breeding plumage, the male has black markings on the head and warm reddish-brown areas. The female is duller and lacks the prominent black markings.
In Hong Kong it occurs along the coast in winter and feeds on sandy and muddy shores, mudflats, and salt pans.
In Japan it lays in a shallow scrape in sand, sometimes lined with wood fragments or pebbles. Clutches contain two or three eggs, usually three.
In Japan the male mainly incubates at night and the female during the day, with incubation lasting 24–27 days. Chicks walk soon after hatching and are cared for by both parents.
On Japanese shores it runs and pauses while searching the ground. Its food includes sand-bubbler crabs, amphipods, polychaete worms, flies, beetles, spiders, and molluscs.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.