This species occurs along the coastline, where it frequents estuaries, sandy or rocky beaches, mangrove swamps, tidal ponds and creeks, mudflats or coral reefs (Richardson 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Richardson and Aspinall 1998, Aspinall and Porter 2011). Especially during migration, it is also found further inland at freshwater sites like pools, sewage treatment plants or damp grassland (Richardson 1990, Aspinall and Porter 2011). There is no information available about its diet in the UAE or Arabia; elsewhere, when inland on migration, its diet consists of adult and larval insects, spiders, earthworms, molluscs and plant material (Johnsgard 1981, del Hoyo et al. 1996). On the coast during the winter, the species takes crustaceans, molluscs, large polychaete worms and occasionally fish, reptiles or young birds (del Hoyo et al. 1996). The species is migratory (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998). It breeds from May to August in the tundra of the Eurasian Arctic (Hayman et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996).