The species breeds in moist-wet tundra habitats interspersed with surface water, wet coastal grassland, salt-marshes and wet upland moorland. Outside breeding season it occurs on variety of inland and coastal wetland types (Warnock & Gill 2020). Widely distributed across the N Holarctic. In Europe it breeds mostly in Fennoscandia, the Baltic region, the British Isles and Iceland (Keller et al. 2020).
Intra Eurasian/African migrant. European populations winter in W & S Europe, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, N & W Africa.
Its population trend in Europe is unknown. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2022).