This small shorebird breeds in the Northern Hemisphere and migrates to Australia. Its head and neck turn reddish-brown in breeding plumage.
In non-breeding plumage, it has a grey-brown back, white underparts, and a white eyebrow. In breeding plumage, the head and neck are reddish-brown.
Birds migrate from Northern Hemisphere breeding grounds to Australia for the southern summer and feed on small insects and crustaceans on mudflats and inland waters. Many remain through the Australian winter.
It lays four eggs in a grass-lined ground hollow on low Arctic tundra. Both parents share incubation and chick care, and chicks leave the nest soon after hatching.
It probes and gleans rapidly for small gastropods, amphipods, ostracods, fly larvae and pupae, and seeds.
It has a short black bill and dark legs. Juveniles show rufous fringes on the mantle and upper scapulars contrasting with grayer wing coverts, with variation in overall color tone.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.