Pterocles

Pterocles is a genus of near passerine birds in the sandgrouse family. It includes all the species in the family except for two central Asian species in Syrrhaptes.

Pterocles
Spotted sandgrouse
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Class: Aves
Order: Pterocliformes
Family: Pteroclidae
Genus: Pterocles
Temminck, 1815
Type species
Tetrao alchata (pin-tailed sandgrouse)
Linnaeus, 1766
Species

See text

These sandgrouse have small, pigeon-like heads and necks, but sturdy compact bodies. They have long pointed wings and sometimes tails. Their legs are feathered down to the toes, but unlike species of the genus Syrrhaptes the toes are not feathered.

Pterocles species have a fast direct flight, and flocks fly to watering holes at dawn and dusk.

Two to three eggs are laid directly on the ground. They are buff or greenish with cryptic markings. All species are resident.

Taxonomy

The genus Pterocles was introduced in 1815 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck.[1] The type species was subsequently designated by the English zoologist George Robert Gray as the pin-tailed sandgrouse.[2][3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pteron meaning "wing" with -klēs meaning "notable" or "splendid".[4]

Species

The genus contains 14 extant species:[5]

ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Pin-tailed sandgrouse Pterocles alchata North Africa and the Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Kazakhstan, Spain, Portugal
Namaqua sandgrousePterocles namaquaAngola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa
Chestnut-bellied sandgrousePterocles exustuscentral and northern Africa, and southern Asia
Spotted sandgrousePterocles senegallus Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger
Black-bellied sandgrousePterocles orientalis Iberia, northwest Africa, the Canary Islands, Turkey, Iran, Cyprus and Israel
Crowned sandgrousePterocles coronatus North Africa and the Middle East.
Yellow-throated sandgrousePterocles gutturalis Angola, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Burchell's sandgrousePterocles burchelli Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa
Madagascar sandgrousePterocles personatus Madagascar
Black-faced sandgrousePterocles decoratus Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Lichtenstein's sandgrousePterocles lichtensteinii Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Double-banded sandgrousePterocles bicinctus southern Africa.
Painted sandgrousePterocles indicus Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Four-banded sandgrousePterocles quadricinctus Africa from Mauritania and Cameroon east to Sudan and Uganda

A fossil species, Pterocles bosporanus, is known from the early Pleistocene of Crimea.[6]

References
  1. Temminck, Coenraad Jacob (1815). Histoire Naturelle Générale des Pigeons et des Gallinacés (in French). Vol. 3. Amsterdam: J. C. Sepp et fils. pp. 238, 712.
  2. Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 62.
  3. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1937). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 3.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 322. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2022). "Turacos, bustards, cuckoos, mesites, sandgrouse". IOC World Bird List Version 12.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  6. Zelenkov, N. V. (2023-08-01). "A New Species of Sandgrouse (Aves: Pteroclidae) from the Early Pleistocene of the Crimea". Doklady Biological Sciences. 511 (1): 264–266. doi:10.1134/S0012496623700497. ISSN 1608-3105.
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