A migratory sandpiper that uses shallow freshwater wetlands in Australia, walking through water as it searches for small prey.
A small, slim wader with grey-brown upperparts marked by pale spots, a white underside, yellow-green legs, and a white line above the eye.
It wades into shallow water, pecks insects from the surface, sweeps its bill from side to side underwater, and probes the mud for food.
On northern breeding grounds it lines a shallow scrape with grass and leaves, sometimes using old songbird nests. The usual clutch is four eggs, incubated mainly by the female, occasionally the male, for 22–23 days.
It mainly eats aquatic insects, their larvae and molluscs, picking at the surface or probing mud. It may also feed while swimming.
In flight it shows a square white rump, no wing-bars and clipped wingbeats.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.