Houbara Bustard - BirdForum Opus

Chlamydotis undulata

Photo by steenl
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, November 2006

Identification

Displaying male, subspecies fuertaventurae
Photo by birdingberlin
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, February 2018

Male 65–75 cm (25½-29½ in); female 55–65 cm (21¾-25½ in)

Brown upperparts
White underparts
Black stripe down the sides of neck

In flight, the long wings show large areas of black and brown on the flight feathers
Sexes are similar, the female being smaller and greyer above.

Similar Species

It is slightly smaller and darker than Macqueen's Bustard.

Distribution

Canary Islands and northern Africa.

Taxonomy

Macqueen's Bustard (C. macqueenii) is now split from Houbara Bustard.

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies¹:

C. u. fuertaventurae - Eastern Canary Islands (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote)
C. u. undulata - North Africa (Morocco to western Nile Valley)

Habitat

Arid plains and steppes; deserts and other very arid sandy areas.

Behaviour

Breeding

Ground-nesters, the clutch consisting of 2-4 eggs.

Diet

They have a very varied diet which includes plant material such as seeds, fruits and shoots, also insects and other small creatures.

Vocalisation

They are virtually silent.

References

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/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Mar 2018)
Wikipedia

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Houbara Bustard. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Houbara_Bustard

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