The wood sandpiper was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Tringa glareola.

These three species are a group of smallish shanks with red or yellowish legs, displaying a breeding plumage of subdued, light-brown above (with some darker mottling), and a pattern of somewhat smaller, diffuse, brownish spots on the breast and neck.

[7][8] The wood sandpiper breeds in subarctic wetlands, from the Scottish Highlands in the west, east across Eurasia and the Palearctic.

Adults and immatures which accumulate fuel loads of c.50% of their lean body mass can potentially cross distances of 2397–4490 km in one non-stop flight.

[13] They forage for invertebrates by probing their bills in shallow water or into wet mud, such as lakeshores or riverbanks, and mainly eat aquatic insects, crustaceans, arthropods, various worms, and other small prey.

[14] The wood sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.