This plover breeds in western North America and searches for insects on grassland and semidesert ground.
Adults are tan above with a warm fawn-brown nape, blackish tail, black bill, and pale legs. Breeding adults have a black forecrown and black lores between the eye and bill.
It eats mostly insects, moving quickly for several feet before stopping to scan and seize prey from the ground. Breeding habitat includes shortgrass prairie and high open semidesert; in winter it also uses agricultural fields, prairie, and alkaline flats.
The male makes several scrapes on bare or nearly bare ground. Nests are lined with lichen, grass, roots, and leaves, and eggs may be partly covered with rabbit, cattle, or other mammal droppings.
A pair usually uses two nests. The female divides her usual six eggs between them, with the female incubating at one nest and the male at the other.
Chicks hatch covered in down and can leave the nest once the down is dry.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.