SAND GROUSE

SANDGROUSE

(PTEROCLIDFORMES)

On the way to 8 am ARBY'S coffee break recently, I was listening to

Maryland Public Radio on the car radio and I hear this screaching, only to find it is the from the MPR program about 'birds' and is the mateing call

of a Sand Grouse.

This of course calls for an instant research for the Sand Grouse. So here

is the result.

The Sandgrouse, one of 16 species of birds of the Asian and African

deserts which are classified with 'plovers' of the order Charadriformes.

They range in treeless open country, in plains, savannah's, and semi-

deserts and are ground dwellers.

About 9 to 16 inches long, with gray or brown plumage, pointed wings,

short legs and pinlike cenrter tail feathers and fly swiftly and walk rapidly.

They weigh less than 17 oz. Male are more brightly colored. The male has

a dense layer of belly down which are adapted for absorbing water, allowing the male to carry water to their chicks mile away.

Their thick feathering and tough skin prevents them from being a good

game bird. They, like a pigeon, mate for life, the female's lay 2 or 3

elongated dark eggs in a depression on the ground which the male incubate

at night. The new born chicks leave the nest as soon as they are hatched, but receive a lot of parental care.

The Pterocles sandgrouse have bare toes and the Syrrhaptes sandgrouse

lack the hind toe and the front toes are feathered.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/animal/sandgrouse.