Any species of limicoline birds of the genera Strepsilas and Arenaria, allied to the plovers, especially the common American and European species (Strepsilas interpres). They are so called from their habit of turning up small stones in search of mollusks and other aquatic animals. Called also brant bird, sand runner, sea quail, sea lark, sparkback, and skirlcrake.

migratory shorebirds of the plover family that turn over stones in searching for food

a small wader like a ringed plover, that is supposed, as its name suggests, to turn stones for a living, which usually requires living on a pebbly beach, cold, windswept and rainlashed