Little Bustard - BirdForum Opus

Breeding male
Photo © by Steve Fletcher
Near Santa Marta de Magasca, Extremadura, Spain

Tetrax tetrax

Identification

Non-breeding
Photo © by john-henry
Extremadura, Spain, February 2006

Male 40–45 cm (15¾-17¾); Female 40–43 cm (15¾-17 in)

• Small head on long neck
• Long legged
• Brown above and white below
  

Breeding Male

• Grey face
• Black neck with white "V" below throat
• White band on upper breast
  

Female is marked darker below than the male
Immature birds resemble females.

Distribution

Europe, Africa and Asia. Western Europe: France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Albania,Bulgaria, Ukraine
Northern Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Moldova
Middle East: Turkey, Syria, Israel, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Asia: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China
South Asia; Pakistan

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Habitat

Open grassland.

Behaviour

Diet

Their varied diet consists of beetles, grasshoppers and some invertebrates. They also eat vegetable matter such as shoots, leaves, flowers and seeds.

Breeding

Their clutch contains 2 to 6 eggs in a ground scrape. Incubation takes 20-22 days.

Vocalisation

Listen in an external program

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2019)
3. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2021) Little Bustard. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 April 2021 from https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/Little_Bustard

External Links

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