Namaqua sandgrouse

Pterocles namaqua

TAXONOMY

Tetrao namaqua Gmelin, 1789, Namaqualand, South Africa. Monotypic.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Ganga Namaqua, ganga de Namaland; German: Namaflughuhn; Spanish: Ganga Namaqua.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

9.4–11 in (24–28 cm); 5–8.5 oz (143–240 g). Medium-sized; tail wedge-shaped; central, elongated tail feathers. Male has yellowish olive head, breast and mantle; double breast-band white, bordered below with maroon; belly and back brown; back spotted pearl-gray. Female mostly barred brown and buff; streaked brown and buff on head and neck.

DISTRIBUTION

Southern Africa from extreme southwestern Angola through Namibia to Botswana and western South Africa.

HABITAT

Open desert and semi-desert, usually stony with low shrubs; sandy desert with scattered grass tufts.

BEHAVIOR

Gregarious, except when nesting. Flocks may number several hundred or thousands of birds at watering points. Usually drinks in the morning up to three hours after sunrise; some birds may drink only every three to five days. Feeding grounds

may be 35 mi (60 km) from nearest palatable drinking water. Flies up to 45 mi (70 km) per hour; birds in flock keep contact with an intermittent, three-note call.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Feeds mainly on small, dry seeds picked up from surface of soil. Drinking water needed to augment lack of water in food and for evaporative cooling in hot weather.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Nests solitarily on open ground, which is usually stony and shrubby. Nest is shallow scrape lined with some pebbles and bits of dry vegetation. Clutch of three well camouflaged eggs incubated by female during day and by male at night for about three weeks. Chicks leave nest within 24 hours of hatching; can fly at about a month. Chicks dependent on male parent for water for two to three weeks until able to fly to water.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Common to abundant throughout limited range; not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Important gamebird, hunted for food and sport. Presently under intensive study as subject for game management.