Black-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles orientalis

Sandgrouse are more related to doves than to grouse. The Black-bellied Sandgrouse has two subspecies, one resident in southwest Europe, northwest Africa and the Near East, and the other breeding in Central Asia and wintering in Pakistan and northern India. All on this page are the Central Asian subspecies in Kazakhstan except the one above right and a male below.

The first row of photos and the male sandgrouse below were taken by Elizabeth Barrett and all other photos on the page by Alexandra Makhnina in Kazakhstan.

The breeding male has a plain chest and rufous neck. Both male and female have the black chest band, white underwings and black belly. The female has a speckled chest.

The breeding male leaves the nest at dusk to soak his black belly in a water source, then returns to let his chicks drink water from his wet feathers.