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.
Martin H[e]inrich Carl Lichtenstein was a German physician, explorer, botanist and zoologist. He explored parts of southern Africa and collected natural history specimens extensively and many new species were described from his collections by European scientists.
The chestnut-backed sparrow-lark is a passerine bird which is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
The black-bellied sandgrouse is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family.
The blackstart is a chat found in desert regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. It is resident throughout its range.
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 black-headed oriole is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. It is found in Africa and has a very striking appearance with a bright yellow body, contrasting black head and flesh-coloured beak.
The grey-headed kingfisher is a species of kingfisher that has a wide distribution from the Cape Verde Islands off the north-west coast of Africa to Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, east to Ethiopia, Somalia and southern Arabia and south to South Africa.
The Nubian nightjar is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in salt marshes of Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Israel, Kenya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The sooty gull is a species of gull in the family Laridae, also known as the Aden gull or Hemprich's gull. It is found in Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As is the case with many gulls, it has traditionally been placed in the genus Larus. The sooty gull is named in honour of the German naturalist Wilhelm Hemprich who died in 1825 while on a scientific expedition to Egypt and the Middle East with his friend Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.
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 black-faced sandgrouse is a species of bird in the Pteroclidae family. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The yellow-throated sandgrouse is a species of bird in the family Pteroclidae.
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 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 Arabian bustard is a species of bustard which is found across the Sahel region of Africa and south western Arabia. It is part of the large-bodied genus, Ardeotis, and, though little known, appears to be a fairly typical species in that group.
The northern puffback is a species of bird in the family Malaconotidae. It is found in northern sub-Saharan Africa. It forms a superspecies with the black-backed puffback, which replaces it in eastern equatorial and southern Africa.
The little rock thrush is a species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen. It is found in rocky areas with some trees, and sometimes near settlements. At 15 to 16 centimetres this is the smallest of the Muscicapidae. The male has the head, throat and upper mantle blue-grey, the underparts orange-red, except for the center blackish center tail and tips which form an inverted T shape. The female is duller and paler. It is readily mistaken for a redstart because of its habit of trembling its tail.
The mourning wheatear is a bird, one of 14 species of wheatear found in northern Africa and the Middle East. It is a small passerine in a group formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, but now more generally considered to be part of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
