A stout gray shorebird, it breeds in the Arctic and winters farther north than many other shorebirds. It searches for food on rocky shores and mudflats.
It is a rather stout, gray sandpiper. Size and color pattern vary across its range, with larger and brighter birds in the central breeding range.
During its brief nesting season it feeds, displays, builds multiple nests, and raises chicks within a few weeks. In winter it eats invertebrates on rocky and muddy tidal shores.
The male makes a deep, plant-lined cup on slightly raised, drier tundra or moss hummocks. Incubation may be shared or undertaken by either sex alone. Active, downy chicks forage with adults in wet areas near the nest.
Breeding birds eat fly and beetle larvae, spiders and other tundra prey. Outside breeding they take snails, barnacles and mussels from rocks or algae, and probe sand and mud for small clams and marine worms.
Nonbreeding birds are gray above and pale below with dark spotting. In winter the bill base is orange and the legs greenish yellow. Juveniles have pale golden feather edges above and a buff-washed, faintly streaked breast.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.