This species occurs in fresh and brackish water, favouring lagoons, sewage treatment plants and open swampy ground (Richardson 1990, Jennings 2010, Aspinall and Porter 2011). During migration and in winter, it is found in any wetland and on the coast (Jennings 2010). There is no information available about its diet in the UAE or in Arabia; elsewhere the diet includes adult and larval aquatic insects, molluscs, crustaceans, spiders, oligochaete and polychaete worms, tadpoles and amphibian spawn, small fish, fish eggs and occasionally seeds (Urban et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996). The breeding season lasts from April to June or July (Jennings 2010). The species breeds in loose colonies in undisturbed areas on small islets in shallow lagoons, close to foraging sites (Johnsgard 1981, Jennings 2010). The nest is a depression or shallow scrape in sandy substrate with only little lining; alternatively, it may be a more elaborate platform of plantmaterial constructed on a floating mass of aquatic vegetation (Flint et al. 1984, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998, Jennings 2010). Nests are usually situated low above the water line (Jennings 2010). Clutches contain four eggs (Jennings 2010). The species is typically gregarious, occurring in small groups or larger flocks of several hundred up to a thousand individuals on migration, during the winter and at nightly roosts (Urban et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996, Snow and Perrins 1998).