This is a hardy sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and subarctic regions of Alaska and the Chukotka and Kamchatka Peninsulas.

It is closely related to the purple sandpiper that breeds in arctic regions of northeast Canada and the northwest Palearctic.

The rock sandpiper was formally described in 1873 by the American ornithologist Elliott Coues and given the binomial name Tringa ptilocnemis.

It reproduces in tundra habitats, typically favoring drier and more desolate areas with limited vegetation such as lichen, moss, and sparse grasses.

[10] Their breeding habitat is the northern tundra on Arctic Pacific coast of Alaska and the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands.