Sandgrouse

Sandgrouse are a special group of birds known scientifically as Pteroclidae. There are sixteen different kinds of sandgrouse, and they all belong to the order Pterocliformes. These birds live mainly on the ground in open areas without many trees, like plains, savannahs, and semi-deserts.

You can find sandgrouse in many places, including northern, southern, and eastern Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, India, and central Asia. Some types, like the black-bellied sandgrouse and the pin-tailed sandgrouse, even live as far west as the Iberian Peninsula and France. Another kind, Pallas's sandgrouse, sometimes travels far from its usual home in Asia in very large groups.

Description

Sandgrouse birds have small, pigeon-like heads and necks with sturdy bodies. They are about the size of a dinner plate to a small dog, and their feathers help them blend into the desert. Males are usually a bit bigger and brighter than females. These birds have strong wings for fast and direct flying, and some even have long points on their tail feathers.

Their legs are short, and depending on the type of sandgrouse, their legs may have feathers in different places. Their feathers help hide them in the sandy landscape, and they have special belly feathers that can hold water. This lets adult sandgrouse carry small amounts of water to their chicks who might be far from water sources.

Distribution

Sandgrouse birds of the genus Syrrhaptes live in the wide grasslands of central Asia. They can be found from the Caspian Sea through southern Siberia, Tibet, and Mongolia to northern and central China. Usually, they stay in the same place, but Pallas's sandgrouse sometimes move to new areas. This happened in 1863, 1888, and most notably in 1908 when many were seen as far away as Ireland and the United Kingdom, where they even bred in Yorkshire and Moray.

The other sandgrouse, belonging to the genus Pterocles, are mostly found in the dry areas of northern, eastern, and southern Africa, with some living in the Middle East and western Asia. The Madagascar sandgrouse lives only on Madagascar. The black-bellied sandgrouse and the pin-tailed sandgrouse can also be seen in Spain, Portugal, and southern France. Most of these birds do not move much, but some travel short distances, usually to lower areas during winter.

Behaviour and ecology

Sandgrouse mainly eat seeds, but they also enjoy green shoots, leaves, bulbs, berries, and sometimes insects like ants and termites, especially when they are ready to have babies. Different kinds of sandgrouse eat certain seeds more than others, depending on what grows around them. They often eat seeds from leguminous plants and will also eat oats and grains in areas where people farm.

These birds often feed in big groups, sometimes up to 100 together. Because they eat dry food, they need to drink water often. Most sandgrouse drink at dawn, but some drink at dusk. They sip water quickly into their beaks and can drink enough for a whole day in just a few seconds. When they fly to drink, they call out to others of their kind, and many birds meet at the same water spot even if they come from far away.

Sandgrouse usually find the same water holes every day, even if they are very far away, because temporary water might dry up. For example, the Burchell's sandgrouse in the Kalahari Desert can fly over 100 miles each day to get water. Not all sandgrouse need to drink every day; the Tibetan sandgrouse gets plenty of water from melting snow.

When it’s time to have babies, sandgrouse usually pair up. They make their nests in small dips in the ground, often lined with dry leaves. They lay three eggs, which hatch after about 20 to 25 days. The baby birds can walk soon after hatching and learn from their parents about what to eat. The parents help keep the babies safe from too much heat during the day and too much cold at night. The baby birds stay close to their parents for several months.

Taxonomy

Sandgrouse used to be grouped with the Galliformes because they look similar to true grouse. But scientists learned these similarities are just a coincidence, called convergent evolution. Later, sandgrouse were thought to be close to Columbiformes because of how they drink, using a special movement in their esophagus. Now we know they don’t drink that way, so they are placed in their own group called Pterocliformes. Some think they might be close to shorebirds like the Charadriiformes.

Recent studies, like the one by Fain and Houde in 2004, placed sandgrouse with Columbiformes in a group called Metaves. A bigger study by Hackett and others in 2008 put them close to Columbiformes again, in a group called Columbimorphae, and also near the Mesites.

Phylogeny

Living Pterocliformes, based on the work by John Boyd.

Species

Relations with humans

Sandgrouse don't interact much with people because they mostly live in dry, empty areas where there aren't many people. They aren't usually hunted for food because their taste isn't very appealing, though sometimes many of them have been caught at water holes. There was an effort to bring them to Nevada, but it didn't work, though they have been brought to Hawaii. None of the sandgrouse species are in danger, though some have disappeared from certain places, especially in Europe. One type of chestnut-bellied sandgrouse wasn't seen after 1979 in the Nile Valley of Egypt, and it may no longer exist, though we don't know why.