The Nubian Bustard is a species of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 in the bustard family. This is a medium-large bustard found in the sparsely vegetated interface between the southern margins of the Sahara desert and the northern part of the Sahel. It is found in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

, Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

, Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

, Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

, Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, and Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

.
Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are dry savanna

Savanna

A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...

 and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

.

Description

In this species, males average around 5–7 kg (11–15.4 lb) and measure around 80 cm (31.5 in) in length and 180 cm (70.9 in). Females are much smaller at around 3 kg (6.6 lb) and 60 cm (23.6 in) in length and 150 cm (59.1 in) across the wings. In males the forehead, crown and upperparts are tawny-buff marked with black. A broad black band extends over the eyes. The rest of the face is white except for the chin and throat which are black. The upperparts are pale tawny buff, lightly vermiculated with black. Tail is similar but more grey. The lower hindneck and sides of breast are bordered by a black line. In adult females plumage is similar but colors generally less intense and mantle faintly streaked. It is smaller than the sympatric Arabian Bustard

Arabian Bustard

The Arabian Bustard is a species of bird in the bustard family. It is part of the largest-bodied genus and, though little known, appears to be a fairly typical species in that group. As in all bustards, the male Arabian bustard is much larger than the female. Males have been found to weigh ,...

, as well as more rufous with a different body shape. Compared to larger bustards the Nubian has a more rounder body, a relatively long, thin neck and a rounded head.

Life History

Observation of breeding has occurred from July to October have been reported across the species’ range. Males undertake elaborate displays on selected high points or dune ridges during the breeding season. Displays can entail throwing out the breast, pulling the head back, raising the tail and lowering the wings to display a contrasting white and dark pattern, while strutting repeatedly back and forth along the skyline. The clutch size is 2-3 eggs, which are laid in a simple scrape on the ground under or near low shrubs or tussocks of grass. Adult birds will engage in active diversionary tactics to draw would be predators away from eggs and chicks. Immature birds may be ‘parked’ whilst adults forage for food. Mixed groups of adult and immature birds, up to a dozen or more in number, have been observed following the breeding season.

This bird is believed mainly feed on insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s but seeds, fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 and Acacia

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

tree gum may supplement the diet. The main predator of this species are eagles such as the Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...

 or the Short-toed Snake Eagle. Young birds and eggs are threatened by a wider range of predators, including mammalian carnivores and reptiles.

Conversation

Classified as Near-Threatened by the IUCN, its main threat is habitat loss. The species population may additional be negatively effected from widespread hunting (mostly related to falconry activities), civil wars, intensification of land use, disturbance by off-road vehicles, overgrazing, disturbance by livestock, firewood collection and commercial wood collection all of which may now be causing substantial declines in parts of its range.