It is a highly migratory bird, breeding in northern parts of Eurasia and North America and flying south to winter on coastlines almost worldwide.

The ruddy turnstone was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa interpres.

The subspecies A. i. morinella occurs in northern Alaska and in Arctic Canada as far east as Baffin Island.

A. i. interpres breeds in western Alaska, Ellesmere Island, Greenland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and northern Russia.

In Asia, it is widespread in the south with birds wintering as far north as southern China and Japan (mainly in the Ryukyu Islands).

The ruddy turnstone has a varied diet including carrion, eggs, fish[7] and plant material but it feeds mainly on invertebrates.

It often flips over stones and other objects to get at prey items hiding underneath; this behaviour is the origin of the name "turnstone".

[8] They have also been observed preying on the eggs of other bird species such as gulls, terns, ducks, and even other turnstones, though this behaviour is uncommon.

In the majority of observed cases, turnstones typically go after undefended or unattended nests, puncturing the shells with their beaks to get at the contents within.

When these dominant individuals were temporarily removed, some of the subordinates started to rout, while others enacted no change in foraging strategy.

Dominance in aggression is age-related, with juveniles assuming the subordinate role a disproportionate amount of the time.

[12] The plumage patterns of ruddy turnstones exhibit an unusual amount of variation in comparison with other shorebirds.

[13] Ruddy turnstones can survive in a wide range of habitats and climatic conditions from Arctic to tropical.

The same study also confirmed ruddy turnstones as one of the longest lived wader species, with annual adult mortality rates of under 15%.

They are variable in colour but are commonly pale green-brown with dark brown markings, densest at the larger end.

Environment Canada surveys suggest that they have in fact decreased in abundance relative to the 1970s (up to 50% by one estimate) and face a variety of threats during migration and winter.