During winter, the species inhabits sheltered coastal habitats such as inlets, bays, harbours, estuaries and lagoons with large intertidal mud and sandflats, oceanic sandy beaches with nearby mudflats, sandy spits and islets, muddy shorelines with mangroves and occasionally exposed reefs or rock platforms (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Higgins and Davies 1996, Aspinall and Porter 2011). On passage, the species stages in estuaries and on intertidal mudflats (Tomkovich 1997, Moores 2006). There is no information available about its diet in the UAE; elsewhere during winter and on passage, it takes bivalves up to 36 mm long from intertidal mudflats, as well as gastropods, crustaceans, annelid worms and echinoderms (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Higgins and Davies 1996). It forages in small groups (Johnsgard 1981). It roosts in refuges, such as shallow water in sheltered sites, on coastal dunes or on saltflats amongst mangroves during high tides (Higgins and Davies 1996, Rogers et al. 2006). This species is a long-distance migrant and largely travels along the coast with few stopovers, but utilises different routes in autumn and in spring (del Hoyo;et al.;1996, Higgins and Davies 1996). Individuals wintering in the UAE breed between May and July in north-east Siberia. The species leaves the breeding grounds in July and arrives on the wintering grounds between August and October (del Hoyo;et al.;1996). The return migration to the breeding grounds takes place from March to April,;although juvenile non-breeders often remain in the wintering range for the breeding season (Hayman;et al.;1986, del Hoyo;et al. 1996, Pedersen et al. 2017).