Black-faced sandgrouse | |
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A pair at Serengeti N. P., Tanzania | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Pterocliformes |
Family: | Pteroclidae |
Genus: | Pterocles |
Species: | P. decoratus |
Binomial name | |
Pterocles decoratus Cabanis, 1868 | |
The black-faced sandgrouse (Pterocles decoratus) is a species of bird in the Pteroclidae family. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
There are three subspecies: [2]
The breeding season of birds such as the sandgrouse which live in semi-arid tropics correlates with rainfall, thus the true extent or timing at which the breeding season will occur is highly unpredictable. Little is known about the duration and variation of the sandgrouse's breeding in Kenya, although it is most likely to breed in the dry season following the long rains. Its reproductive organs are known to increase largely in size during breeding season, despite the scarcity of the breeding patterns. [3]
Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclidae, a family of sixteen species of bird, members of the order Pterocliformes. They are traditionally placed in two genera. The two central Asian species are classified as Syrrhaptes and the other fourteen species, from Africa and Asia, are placed in the genus Pterocles. They are ground dwelling birds restricted to treeless, open country, such as plains, savannahs, and semi-deserts. They are distributed across northern, southern, and eastern Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, and India through central Asia. The ranges of the black-bellied sandgrouse and the pin-tailed sandgrouse even extend into the Iberian Peninsula and France, and Pallas's sandgrouse occasionally breaks out in large numbers from its normal range in Asia.
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