The dotterel is a brown-and-black-streaked bird with a broad, white eye stripe and an orange-red chest band when in breeding plumage.

The Eurasian dotterel is a migratory species, breeding in Northern Europe and Eurosiberia and migrating south to North Africa and the Middle East in the winter.

The Eurasian dotterel was formerly described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Charadrius morinellus.

The specific morinellus is derived from Ancient Greek moros meaning "foolish", due to the bird's trusting nature.

Which use is the oldest is unclear,[8] but the link is its tame and unsuspecting nature, which made it easy to catch; its Scottish Gaelic name is amadan-mòintich, "fool of the moors.

It breeds in the Arctic tundra of northern Eurosiberia, from Norway to eastern Siberia, and on suitable mountain plateaus such as the Scottish highlands and the Alps.

Migration stopovers are traditional, and small parties (trips) of dotterels pass through each year at these usually inland arable or grassy sites.

A survey published in 2015 showed a fall in dotterel numbers in Scotland between 1987 and 2011, from 980 to 423 breeding males - representing a decline of 57%.