It is a small, very slender, elegant, needle-like beaked, long-legged shorebird that lives near freshwater. It resembles the greenshank, but is smaller, has longer and thinner legs, and a straight beak. It is more slender than the wood whirligig, has greener legs, and is taller. In summer, the adult has blackish spots on its upper side and faint spots on its flanks. It is lighter in color and unpatterned in winter. The young have browner upper sides. It especially uses invertebrates, and crustaceans in shallow waters on the coast. It uses its slender, long beak like an arrow from above to the water, but it also uses it occasionally by waving its beak from right to left and in the opposite direction.
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