A small plover; wings approximately 117 mm; tail 51 mm; weight 46-64 g (average 55 g); length averages about 17-18 cm (NGS 1983). <br><br>ADULT MALE: Forehead, sides of head (including lores, underparts and collar around hindneck) plain white with a dark band across the front of the crown from eye-to-eye and black shoulder patches that often extend across the breast. Inland birds have more complete breast band than Atlantic coast birds. Nonbreeding birds lose the dark bands. Upper parts pale gray-brown, lightest on the rump and upper tail-coverts; primaries dusky-black at tips, the inner webs largely white, and all but the outer two or three more or less white on outer webs; secondaries largely white; greater wing-coverts tipped with white; axillaries and lining of wing white; tail white at base with the features darkening towards the end and tipped with white; outer retrices mostly white. Bill dull orange, tipped with black; all dark in winter. Legs and feet orange-yellow; iris dark brown; eyelids pale yellow (Bent 1929, Roberts 1955, Wilcox 1959, Dinsmore 1981). Immature plumage resembles adult nonbreeding plumage; juveniles acquire adult plumage the spring after they fledge. <br><br>VOCALIZATIONS: The call is a two-noted "peep-lo" with an organ-like sound (Robbins et al. 1983). <br><br>EGGS: creamy white and spotted; 25 x 32 mm.