Great Bustard - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by stefano t63
Villafafila, Spain, May 2010

Otis tarda

Identification

105 cm (41¾ in)
Breeding male

• Back barred black and gold
• Broad white patch on the wing

Distribution

Immature Male
Photo © by john-henry
Villafafila, Spain, May 2007

Southern Palearctic, southeastern Russia to Mongolia and northeastern China.

A re-introduction programme has been started in the UK, based on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies¹:

• O. t. tarda:

• Southern Palearctic

• O. t. dybowskii:

• South-eastern Russia to Mongolia and north-eastern China

Habitat

cereal croplands, open plains and steppe, grassland.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet is mainly plant based, but they also eat invertebrates, small animals and nesting birds too.

Breeding

They nest on the ground, sometimes making a scrape which is occasionally lined with pieces of grass.

Vocalisation

<flashmp3>Otis tarda (song).mp3</flashmp3>

Gallery

Click on photo for larger image

• 

  Photo © by bengtfalke
  Belen plains, Extremadura, Spain, April 2009

• 

  Displaying male
  Photo © by kamst139
  Alentejo, Portugal, April 2016

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved May 2017)
3. Birdforum Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Great Bustard. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_Bustard

External Links

Great Bustard Group, UK Re-introduction website

Search for photos of Great Bustard in the gallery