This small member of the plover family is widespread throughout most of Australia, to which it is native, and New Zealand where it self introduced in the 1950s. Their habitat is the shallow margins of freshwater wetlands, lakes, rivers, storm drains and marshes, they are sometimes found occupying saline mudflats and estuaries but this is unusual.
They eat small shellfish as well as other aquatic and terrestrial insects, when foraging they keep their body horizontal while bobbing the head to look for food, often running then stopping suddenly to peck at food items in a similar way to their much larger cousin the Masked Lapwing.
They are generally sedentary and seen either alone, as a pair or in a family group occupying a stretch of habitat on a more or less permanent basis, however flocks will sometimes congregate in food-rich areas.
The sexes are identical and retain the same plumage all year round, like other Plovers they nest in a shallow scrape on pebbly ground quite close to water. They may have more then one brood per year and both parents incubate the eggs and look after the young.