Pallas's Sandgrouse
Sand grouse, left and right ♂ ♂, ♀ in the middle
The sand grouse or prairie chicken flight ( Syrrhaptes paradoxus ) is a bird of the family of sandgrouse.
Description
The marigold deaf great with 30 to 41 centimeters bird is characterized by long, needle-like top, middle tail feathers. These are still longer than the spit and brown belly Sandgrouse. Also, the 10th primary feather is pulled out pike -like, but this is feldornithologisch not important. Presumably, this feature is responsible for the whistling noise of the model. On the belly Steppenhuhn has a striking black box, but this is less than the Sandgrouse and is limited to a binding in the area of the feet. The underwings are bright
When males are the head, neck and chest bright and without conspicuous, dark drawing. The throat is as a leading from the eye to the sides of the neck bow stripe orange yellow. On the chest shows a - in contrast to other flight chickens - inconspicuous, dark dashed cross band. The sand-colored top is banded. On the wings missing upper side of each white, chest and primaries have a hellgräuliche staining. In the female the neck spot is bordered by a narrow black band. Crown and nape black flecks and without orange yellow.
Occurrence
The sand grouse inhabits sandy semi-deserts of Central Asia. It comes about between 40 ° N and 50 ° N from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the east front of Northeast China. During the migration to Europe, it seems preferable on sandy coasts and on stubble fields. In the UK and in Denmark it came even to top breeds in northern Germany found nesting attempts instead of invasion in 1888. The last major invasions into Europe with over 10,000 birds occurred in the years 1863, 1888 and weakened, 1908. Since then, the sand grouse appeared only sporadically in Europe. Is probably due to the loss of breeding areas in western Central Asia by the intensification of agriculture there.
Way of life
In droves unites the birds " körki " or " körkörki " call often. The sand grouse feeds primarily on plant foods, especially seeds, grasses and herbs, rare insects. The mating season usually begins in March or April. The sand grouse nests in small colonies on the ground in dense vegetation. The nest usually consists of three, rarely four ocher eggs.