| Four-banded sandgrouse | |
|---|---|
 | |
| male | |
 | |
| female both in Gambia | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Pterocliformes |
| Family: | Pteroclidae |
| Genus: | Pterocles |
| Species: | P. quadricinctus |
| Binomial name | |
| Pterocles quadricinctus Temminck, 1815 | |
The four-banded sandgrouse (Pterocles quadricinctus) is a medium-sized bird in the sandgrouse family.
The four-banded sandgrouse is 25–28 cm long. Its head, neck and upperparts are yellowish-green, with the back heavily marked with brown. The male has black and white bands on its forehead as well as black and white bands separating the breast from the heavily barred belly. The female lacks the head and breast bands and is heavily barred on the back and flanks. It has a small, pigeon-like head and neck, but a sturdy compact body. It has long pointed wings, which are grey underneath, a short tail and a fast direct flight.
This gregarious species occurs in a belt across Africa from Mauritania and Cameroon east to Sudan and Uganda. It is much more common in the west of its range. It is a partial seasonal migrant, with some birds moving further north in the rainy season. It breeds on open areas with some trees, including savanna, scrubland and similar habitats.
Flocks fly to watering holes in the evening to drink and are largely nocturnal. The call is a loud wulli-wulli, and there is much twittering at the drinking holes. The nest is a ground scrape into which 2 or 3 buff eggs with brown markings are laid. Both sexes incubate.
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.
Pallas's sandgrouse is a medium to large bird in the sandgrouse family.
The pin-tailed sandgrouse is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family. It has a small, pigeon like head and neck and a sturdy, compact body. It has long pointed wings, which are white underneath, a long tail and a fast direct flight. Flocks fly to watering holes at dawn. The call is a loud kattar-kattar. This gregarious species breeds on dry open treeless plains and similar habitats. Its nest is a ground scrape into which two or three cream-coloured eggs with cryptic markings are laid. Both sexes incubate the eggs.
The black-bellied sandgrouse is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family.
The Tibetan sandgrouse is a large bird in the sandgrouse family. The genus name Syrrhaptes is from Ancient Greek surrhaptos, "sewn together" and tibetanus is from the type locality, Tibet.
The painted sandgrouse is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family Pteroclidae found in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
The chestnut-bellied sandgrouse or common sandgrouse is a species of sandgrouse. It is a sedentary and nomadic species that ranges from northern and central Africa and further east towards western and southern Asia. There are six recognised subspecies.
The double-banded sandgrouse is a species of predominantly terrestrial, or ground-dwelling, bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is found in arid parts of southern Africa.
Burchell's sandgrouse is a species of bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is found in arid and semi-arid regions of southern Africa. The name of this bird commemorates the English naturalist William John Burchell.
The crowned sandgrouse is a species of bird in the sandgrouse family, the Pteroclidae from North Africa and the Middle East.
The Namaqua sandgrouse, is a species of ground-dwelling bird in the sandgrouse family. It is found in arid regions of south-western Africa.
The Madagascar sandgrouse is a species of bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is endemic to Madagascar and is a ground-dwelling short-legged plump bird. The head of the male is brown with a black area surrounding the beak. It has a pinkish-buff coloured breast, a light brown mottled back, brown wings and paler underparts barred with dark brown. The female has a generally duller appearance being cryptically coloured brown with dark specks and bars.
The spotted sandgrouse is a species of ground dwelling bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is found in arid regions of northern and eastern Africa and across the Middle East and parts of Asia as far east as northwest India. It is a gregarious, diurnal bird and small flocks forage for seed and other vegetable matter on the ground, flying once a day to a waterhole for water. In the breeding season pairs nest apart from one another, the eggs being laid in a depression on the stony ground. The chicks leave the nest soon after hatching and eat dry seed, the water they need being provided by the male which saturates its belly feathers with water at the waterhole. The spotted sandgrouse is listed as being of "least concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in its Red List of Threatened Species.
The black-bellied bustard, also known as the black-bellied korhaan, is an African ground-dwelling bird in the bustard family.
