An elegant, mostly pale-rufous-brown, dry-country shorebird with a diagnostic blue-gray patch on the back of the head. In flight it has a white edge to the inner portion of the hindwing. Pairs and small groups run rapidly on long legs when foraging. A nomad in deserts and semi-deserts, preferring sparsely grassed plains, shrublands, and gravel deserts. The similar Temminck’s Courser differs by being smaller and darker, having a rusty patch on the back of the head, and having an entirely dark hindwing in flight.