Bengal Florican

Bart Bustard ( Houbaropsis bengalensis )

The beard Bustard ( Houbaropsis bengalensis ) is a very rare type of bustards, the only genus Houbaropsis. It occurs in tropical regions of Asia and is threatened with extinction ( IUCN Red List 2009: critically endangered ).

Features

The beard Trappe reached a size 66-68 centimeters. Male adult birds have a black plumage with white wings that are all white with black tips in flight. Females and young birds are brown to reddish - brown and have yellow-brown wings with thin dark stripes. The feet and legs are yellow, the beak and the iris are dark.

Habitat

Bart bustards live in low-lying dry and seasonally flooded natural grasslands, which are often interspersed with scattered bushes and open forest areas. Most Indian populations appear to be sedentary, while traveling in Cambodia over short distances. The area surrounding the Tonle Sap they breed during the dry season in the flooded grasslands of the lake and hike at the beginning of the rainy season in more wooded areas nearby.

Distribution of populations

There are two separate populations:

• On the Indian subcontinent beard bustards are located in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and in the Terai of Nepal. This population is 220-280 birds in India and about 50 birds in Nepal very small and defragmented. While the Indian populations appear to have stabilized, the number of individuals has declined in Chitwan National Park in Nepal. According to an estimate from 2007 survive in Nepal only 28-36 adult birds, while in 2001 it was still 32-60 gave.
• In Southeast Asia Bart bustards are in Cambodia and perhaps more at home in the south of Vietnam. In a survey from 2006-2007 ornithologists estimate the figure at 368-1480 birds. More than half of them live in seasonally flooded grasslands in the province of Kompong Thom. According to this estimate, the population has become less rapidly within a few years as a result of habitat loss. While there were about 3,000 individuals in 1997, conservationists fear that the Cambodian population will be extinct until 2012, when the loss of natural grasslands can not be stopped.