Pterocles | |
---|---|
Spotted sandgrouse | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Pterocliformes |
Family: | Pteroclidae |
Genus: | Pterocles Temminck, 1815 |
Type species | |
Tetrao alchata (pin-tailed sandgrouse) Linnaeus, 1766 | |
Species | |
See text |
Pterocles is a genus of near passerine birds in the sandgrouse family. It includes all the species in the family except for two central Asian species in Syrrhaptes .
These sandgrouse have small, pigeon-like heads and necks, but sturdy compact bodies. They have long pointed wings and sometimes tails. Their legs are feathered down to the toes, but unlike species of the genus Syrrhaptes the toes are not feathered.
Pterocles species have a fast direct flight, and flocks fly to watering holes at dawn and dusk.
Two to three eggs are laid directly on the ground. They are buff or greenish with cryptic markings. All species are resident.
The genus Pterocles was introduced in 1815 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. [1] The type species was subsequently designated by the English zoologist George Robert Gray as the pin-tailed sandgrouse. [2] [3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pteron meaning "wing" with -klēs meaning "notable" or "splendid". [4]
The genus contains 14 extant species: [5]
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Pin-tailed sandgrouse | Pterocles alchata | North Africa and the Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Kazakhstan, Spain, Portugal | |
Namaqua sandgrouse | Pterocles namaqua | Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa | |
Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse | Pterocles exustus | central and northern Africa, and southern Asia | |
Spotted sandgrouse | Pterocles senegallus | Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger | |
Black-bellied sandgrouse | Pterocles orientalis | Iberia, northwest Africa, the Canary Islands, Turkey, Iran, Cyprus and Israel | |
Crowned sandgrouse | Pterocles coronatus | North Africa and the Middle East. | |
Yellow-throated sandgrouse | Pterocles gutturalis | Angola, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
Burchell's sandgrouse | Pterocles burchelli | Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa | |
Madagascar sandgrouse | Pterocles personatus | Madagascar | |
Black-faced sandgrouse | Pterocles decoratus | Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. | |
Lichtenstein's sandgrouse | Pterocles lichtensteinii | Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. | |
Double-banded sandgrouse | Pterocles bicinctus | southern Africa. | |
Painted sandgrouse | Pterocles indicus | Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. | |
Four-banded sandgrouse | Pterocles quadricinctus | Africa from Mauritania and Cameroon east to Sudan and Uganda | |
A fossil species, Pterocles bosporanus , is known from the early Pleistocene of Crimea. [6]
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.
The forktails are small insectivorous birds in the genus Enicurus. They were formerly placed in the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. Their common name derives from their long forked tail.
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Pallas's sandgrouse is a medium to large bird in the sandgrouse family.
Coenraad Jacob Temminck was a Dutch patrician, zoologist and museum director.
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.
Lagopus is a small genus of birds in the grouse subfamily commonly known as ptarmigans. The genus contains three living species with numerous described subspecies, all living in tundra or cold upland areas.
The painted sandgrouse is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family Pteroclidae found in India and Pakistan.
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The grey peacock-pheasant, also known as Burmese peacock-pheasant, is a large Asian member of the order Galliformes.
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The crowned sandgrouse is a species of bird in the sandgrouse family, the Pteroclidae from North Africa and the Middle East.
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