This plover breeds in grasslands and wetlands at the southern tip of South America. Some move north along the Pacific coast outside the breeding season, while others remain in the south throughout the year.
Breeding adults have a white eyebrow, gray face and throat, orange breast, and a broad black band across the abdomen. Nonbreeding birds are browner, with a white belly.
It nests on the ground in grassland, marshes and near lakes. Both sexes incubate the eggs.
It lines a shallow ground hollow with dry vegetation and usually lays two eggs, sometimes three. Both parents incubate, with males by day and females at night recorded.
In the Falkland Islands, chicks leave the nest early and feed themselves under adult supervision. Both adults and chicks eat grassland insects, burrowing larvae and small marine invertebrates from rockpools.
Juveniles resemble nonbreeding adults, with paler brown, mottled plumage.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.