Sandgrouse | Pterocliformes

Zandhoenderachtigen | Gangas

Sandgrouse are compact birds of open, dry country, with a small head on a short neck, a heavy body and long, pointed wings that carry them in fast, direct flight. The plumage is sand-coloured and finely marked with spots and bars, so that a bird sitting still on bare ground is hard to make out; it is dense and the feathers are firmly set. The legs are short and feathered as far as the toes, and much of the day is spent walking. The bill is small and gamebird-like, and the food consists almost entirely of dry seeds picked up from the ground. Outside the breeding season they live in flocks that fly long distances to a drinking place at set times of day and then return to the feeding grounds.

Families in this order

Sandgrouse | Pteroclidae1 speciesSeeds make up almost the whole diet and are picked dry from the ground one at a time, many thousands in a day. That makes daily drinking essential: shortly after sunrise the birds fly in flocks and calling loudly to a waterhole, in a fast, direct flight that may cover several kilometres. The chicks find their own seeds but cannot reach water themselves. The male provides it with the feathers of his belly: their barbules coil up as soon as they are wet and hold water like a sponge. He wades in breast-deep, rocks and shakes his body until the feathers are saturated, and flies back to the nest, where the young strip the moisture from the down with their bills. The nest is no more than a shallow scrape in bare ground; the eggs and the flattened parent vanish against sand and stone, and only from a few metres away does the bird rise on fast wingbeats.