Its breeding grounds were first discovered in 1905 by Sergei Aleksandrovich Buturlin near the village of Pokhodsk in northeastern Yakutia, while visiting the area as a judge.

Summer adults are pale grey above and white below, with a pink flush to the body feathering, and a neat black neck ring.

It migrates only short distances south in autumn, most of the population wintering in northern latitudes at the edge of the pack ice in the northern Bering Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk, although some birds reach more temperate areas, such as north west Europe; in February 2016 singles were sighted in Cornwall and Ireland according to the BTOs 'BirdTrack', in December 2021 two were seen in Belgium, one in Nieuwpoort[6] and one in Zeebrugge.

The summer breeding grounds are tundra with sedges, grass tussocks, dwarf willows, bushes, lichens and pools.

It lays two to three eggs in a nest on the ground lined with seaweed, grass or moss, often on an island in a little lake.