This short-legged wader with dark upperparts and distinctive orange legs and feet. The birds have a white head with a heavily streaked crown. A black stripe extended from forehead, horizontally through the eyeand vertically to the neck, joined by a black stripe from the bill. Feathers on upper back blackish brown. Broad black band around neck and chest. Narrow white shoulder patches. Rest of upper parts white. No other species can be confused with the ruddy turnstone.

This species breeds in the Northern Hemisphere summer (our winter) in the Arctic lowlands and coast of North America, Canada, Greenland, Europe and Asia. The non-breeding grounds stretch from North and South America across Africa and western Europe to southeast Asia and Australasia. In southern Africa they are found along the entire coast and particularly common on the West Coast.

These non-breeding Palearctic migrants are present in South Africa from September/October to April the following year. The southern African population is estimated to be 39 000 birds, with Langebaan Lagoon recording the highest number of birds for a coastal wetland (averages over 2000 birds).

This coastal species prefers rocky, stony and kelp-covered shores. In estuaries mud-and sandflats covered with eelgrass is the ideal habitat. Many birds that overwinter will move from open shores to sheltered wetlands. They can been recorded in small numbers on coastal rocky shores and exposed mudflats along the Breede River Estuary.

The turnstone is often found mixing with other waders where they use their strong neck and bill to turn over small objects up to 96 g. They may even work together to overturn larger objects. A large variety of prey are taken including gastropods (Isopods), polychaete worms (bristle worms) and insect larvae. They will often scavenge food such as shellfish discarded by oystercatchers. They will even kleptoparasitise (taking the food item another one has caught) other waders

The oldest known Ruddy Turnstone is 19 years and 8 months old. It is thought the longest flight these birds can do is about 4000km.