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Burchell's Sandgrouse - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by charelli
Botswana, May 2018
Pterocles burchelli

Identification

25 cm (9¾ in); Males larger than females

  • Reddish overall plumage with many white spots
  • Pointed central rectrices on short tail

Distribution

Dry interior of southern Africa; Botswana, Namibia, south western Angola, western Zimbabwe and north-western South Africa.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[1].

Habitat

Female
Photo © by Juninho

Kalahari sands (shrubby grassland and scrub) and dry savanna.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of seeds.

They drink in the mornings, up to 4 hours after sunrise.

Breeding

Male
Photo © by Mybs
Kgalagadi National Park, South Africa, November 2006

They breed during the winter after the rains. The nest is a shallow scrape in short grass or amongst scrub.

Referebces

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2018)

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

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