Spotted sandgrouse
Pterocles senegallus
TAXONOMY
Tetrao senegallus Linnaeus, 1771, "Senegal" = Algeria. Monotypic.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Saharan sandgrouse; French: Ganga tacheté; German: Wüstenflughuhn; Spanish: Ganga Moteada.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
About 14 in (36 cm); 8.8–12 oz (250–340 g). Both sexes mainly sandy, pinkish, or a rust-colored buff with yellowish orange throat. Female spotted blackish brown above and below; male mostly plain but lightly mottled brownish on wings, looking fairly uniform in the field. Both sexes have black center of belly and elongated, central tail feathers.
DISTRIBUTION
From southern Morocco, much of Sahara, through Arabian Peninsula to Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and northwestern India.
HABITAT
Desert and semi-desert, usually where stony and flat with isolated patches of vegetation; sometimes in completely bare desert.
BEHAVIOR
Gregarious in flocks of up to about 60, but birds congregate to drink at watering sites in flocks of several hundred about two hours after sunrise. Some birds may drink again in evening. Birds call to each other with a bubbling sound. In Egypt, may gather with flocks of crowned sandgrouse (Pterocles coronatus) to feed on grain spilled by trucks traveling from Nile to Red Sea ports. Nonbreeding flocks roost on ground in open desert, each bird making a shallow scrape.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Mainly small, hard seeds, including fallen grain. May feed on insects, but this needs verification.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Nests in solitary pairs; makes small unlined scrape, usually among stones for camouflage. Breeds mostly March to July. Three camouflaged eggs incubated by female by day and male by night for up to 31 days. Chicks take water from male's soaked belly plumage but feed by themselves on food shown by parents. When disturbed, chicks may dig themselves into soft sand for concealment or may hide among stones.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Common to abundant over most of range; extreme arid habitat means little contact with humans, and therefore, there is little threat to most populations. Said to be increasing in Somalia.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Generally small but may be hunted occasionally
