Male and female birds of this wader are alike. This small wader weighs 55-65 grams. They have plentiful white spots on the dark upper parts of the wing. The supercilium (eyebrow) is white and extends behind the eye to the back of the neck. This bird does not have a prominent eye ring. Its legs are yellowish.

Wood sandpipers breed across forest tundra and taiga from Iceland and Scotland across Eurasia to Siberia. The birds that arrive in southern Africa breed from Finland to east of the Ural Mountains. The non-breeding grounds for the wood sandpiper are sub-Saharan Africa and from India to southeast Asia and Australia.

These common non-breeding migrants start arriving in southern Africa from August and depart out shores from late February to May. They are most common in the North West and Gauteng provinces in South Africa. A small number of one year old birds do overwinter in southern Africa.

These birds prefer inland freshwater habitats such as sewerage work pans, dams and marshes. They are rare at estuaries but can be found along ones with muddy habitats with saltmarshes. They are usually found singly or in loose groups. They do occur along the Breede, so keep an eye out for these locally rare birds.

They feed on aquatic and terrestrial insects and larvae, spiders, molluscs, worms, small fish and frogs. They catch their prey by mainly probing while walking or wading, sometimes sticking whole head under water.

The oldest known bird from southern Africa is 9 years and two month old.