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Bustard

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Bustards
Kori Bustard
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Gruiformes
Family:
Otididae

Genera

See text.

Look up bustard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Bustards are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They make up the family Otididae (formerly known as Otidae). They were renowned by the ancient Arabs for being unnaturally stupid.[1]

Bustards are omnivorous and nest on the ground. They walk steadily on strong legs and big toes, pecking for food as they go. They have long broad wings with "fingered" wingtips, and striking patterns in flight. Many have interesting mating displays, such as inflating throat sacs or elevating elaborate feathered crests. The female lays three to five dark, speckled, eggs in a scrape in the ground, and incubates them alone[2].

Bustards are gregarious outside the breeding season, but are very wary and difficult to approach in the open habitats they prefer.[3]

Status

Most species are declining or endangered through habitat loss and hunting, even where they are nominally protected.[3] Two great bustard eggs were recently laid in Britain for the first time in over 150 years[4], but were unfertilized—probably owing to the still juvenile male population. The last bustard died out in Britain in about 1832, but the bird is being reintroduced through batches of chicks imported from Russia.[3]

Floricans

Some Indian bustards are also called Floricans. The origin of the name is unclear. Jerdon writes in his bird of India (1862)

I have not been able to trace the origin of the Anglo-Indian word Florikin, but was once informed that the Little Bustard in Europe was sometimes called Flanderkin. Latham gives the word Flercher as an English name, and this, apparently, has the same origin as Florikin.

— Jerdon's Birds, 2nd ed. ii. 625.

The Hobson-Jobson dictionary however casts doubt on this theory stating that

We doubt if Jerdon has here understood Latham correctly. What Latham writes is, in describing the Passarage Bustard, which, he says, is the size of the Little Bustard: Inhabits India. Called Passarage Plover. … I find that it is known in India by the name of Oorail; by some of the English called Flercher. (Suppt. to Gen. Synopsis of Birds, 1787, 229. Here we understand the English to be the English in India, and Flercher to be a clerical error for some form of floriken.

Species in taxonomic order

FAMILY: OTITIDAE

Notes

  1. ^ Hayawān, Encyclopedia of Islam
  2. ^ Archibald, George W. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 1-85391-186-0.
  3. ^ a b c Bota, G., J. Camprodon, S. Mañosa & M.B. Morales (Editores). (2005). Ecology and Conservation of steppe-land birds. Lynx Editions. Barcelona ISBN 84-87334-99-7; 978-84-87334-99-3.
  4. ^ [1]http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bustard-eggs.html
  5. ^ Macqueen's Bustard has recently been split from the Houbara Bustard as a full species.

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Bustard".
  • Ecology and conservation of Steppe-Land birds by Gerard Bota et al. International Symposium on Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land birds. Lynx Edicions 2005. 343 pages. ISBN 84-87334-99-7
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otididae.
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