During the non-breeding season, this species inhabits coastal mudflats, estuaries, enclosed lagoons, tidal creeks and saltpans, but it also occurs at inland freshwater wetlands such as open pools in marshes and sandbanks along rivers (Urban et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Richardson and Aspinall 1998, Aspinall and Porter 2011).There is no information available about its diet in the UAE; elsewhere the diet consists chiefly of invertebrates like ants, Hymenoptera, Diptera, beetles, waterbugs, annelids, small molluscs, crustaceans and freshwater mites, but also of plant material (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998). The species is a long-distance migrant (del Hoyo et al. 1996). It breeds between late June and early July in the tundra of the Russian high Arctic (del Hoyo et al. 1996). Autumn movements to wintering grounds occur between July and November; the return migration occurring mid-May to early-June (del Hoyo et al. 1996). A typical migratory flock consists of 20-30 individuals (del Hoyo et al. 1996). Part of the population occurring in the UAE remains in the country over winter, while another part pauses in the country before continuing further south to wintering grounds in Africa (Richardson 1990). Many immatures also remain in the wintering grounds all year round (Richardson 1990, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Pedersen et al. 2017). The species is gregarious outside of the breeding season; and occurs in small groups in its winter range, often aggregating into larger flocks to roost at high tide or at night (Urban et al. 1986, Snow and Perrins 1998, Hockey et al. 2005).