Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse (Male): Pterocles exustus

Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse (Male)
 Pterocles exustus

Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse: Pterocles exustus

Gender: Male.

Age: Adult

IUCN Status: Least Concern

Sighted at: Villlage Sultanpur, Distt. Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Date: 27.6.2015

A first for me!  About 30-35 cms in size, the size of a small hen, it looks low-slung in comparison to hens. It lives in barren plains, sandy deserts or sparse thorn-scrub, fallow dry fields like this specimen, or stubbles at edge of deserts. It is a vegetarian feeding on legumes and grass seeds.

Know to fly long distances in search of water.

Key identifying features of this male representative are:

1)     Pin-tailed.

2)   Dark underwing.

3)   Dark underbelly

4)   Dark necklace like colouring on chest.

5)    Dusky buff in colour.

6)   Yellowish tinge to face.

7)    Black-fringed yellowish spots on wing coverts.

8)   Diffuse blackish-chestnut belly.

9)   Dark-tipped slate-blue bill.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom	-	Animalia
Phylum	-	Chordata
Class	-	Aves
Order	-	Pteroclidiformes
Family	-	Pteroclididae
Genus	-	Pterocles
Species	-	exustus

 

Clucking sound.

 

Photographed at Village Sultanpur, Distt. Gurgaon, Haryana, India, on 27^th June, 2015, using a Nikon D7200 camera and Tamron 150-600 mm lens.