Bustards | Otidiformes

Trapachtigen | Avutardas

Medium-sized to very large walking birds of open plains, with a heavy body, a long neck and long legs with three broad toes and no hind toe, so that perching is impossible. The upperparts are sandy to ochre with fine black vermiculations and merge seamlessly with bare ground and dry grass: standing still is the first defence, walking away the second, and only then comes flight. Flight is on slow deep beats with the neck held straight out, on long broad wings in which most species flash large white panels; a few species are among the heaviest birds still able to take off. There is no preen gland, and the plumage is maintained with dense powder down. The diet is mixed: leaves, flowers, seeds and pods alongside grasshoppers, beetles, termites and small vertebrates. There is no pair bond — the males, larger than the females in most species, display at traditional sites and take no part in nest or young.

Families in this order

Bustards and korhaans | Otididae11 speciesIn this region the family runs from the heaviest bird still able to fly to korhaans no bigger than a gamebird, and the displays are as varied. The largest species raises neck, throat and undertail feathers into a white ball, droops the wings and delivers a deep, far-carrying boom; the crested korhaan climbs steeply above the shrub layer and then drops like a stone with the wings pulled in, checking just above the ground; the black korhaans call loudly and raspingly from a tussock or in a flapping flight in which the white primaries flash; and the species of the dry western plains call in duet, the pair alternating their notes so tightly that it sounds like one bird. The nest is no more than a bare patch of ground with one to three spotted, olive to brown eggs; the female incubates alone and leads the chicks, which walk from the start but are still fed by her for weeks. The species of semi-desert and arid plains follow the rainfall and move hundreds of kilometres in doing so, often at night and then known by the call; those of moist grassland and open savanna stay in the same area all year.