Pallas's sandgrouse (''Syrrhaptes paradoxus'') is a medium to large

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

sandgrouse Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclidae , a family (biology), family of sixteen species of bird, members of the order Pterocliformes . They are traditionally placed in two Genus, genera. The two central Asian species are classified as ''Sy ...

family.

Naming

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

mentions a bird called ''Bargherlac'' (from Turkmen ''bağırlak'') in ''

The Travels of Marco Polo ''Book of the Marvels of the World'' ( Italian: , lit. 'The Million', deriving from Polo's nickname "Emilione"), in English commonly called ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from st ...

'', published around 1300. This is probably ''Syrrhaptes paradoxus ''(''S. pallasii''). Pallas's sandgrouse is named after the German zoologist

Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son ...

. The scientific name is from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

. The genus ''Syrrhaptes'' is from ''surrhaptos'', meaning "sewn together" (the feathered toes of both species in the genus are fused together) and ''paradoxus'' is from ''paradoxos'', meaning "strange".

Description

Pallas's sandgrouse is long with small, pigeon-like head and neck, but sturdy compact body. It has long pointed wings and tail and legs and toes are feathered. Its plumage is buff-coloured, barred above with a black belly patch and pale underwings. The black belly and pale underwing distinguish this species from the related

Tibetan sandgrouse The Tibetan sandgrouse (''Syrrhaptes tibetanus'') is a large bird in the sandgrouse family. The genus name ''Syrrhaptes'' is from Ancient Greek ''surrhaptos'', "sewn together" (the feathered toes of this sandgrouse are fused together) and ''tib ...

. The male Pallas's sandgrouse is distinguished by its grey head and breast, orange face and grey breast band. The female has duller plumage and lacks the breast band though it has more barring on the upperparts. The small feet lack a hind toe, and the three front toes are fused together. The upper surface is feathered, and the underneath has a fleshy pad. The appearance of the foot is more like a paw than an avian foot.

Distribution and habitat

This species breeds across middle latitudes of central Asia on dry

steppes In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

and similar habitats. Its nest is a ground scrape into which 2–3 greenish eggs with cryptic markings are laid. It is a partial migrant, especially from the northern parts of its range in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, but the extent and distance of the southerly winter movement depends on the amount of snowfall. Pallas's sandgrouse occasionally irrupts from its regular breeding and wintering range as a vagrant across Europe as far west as

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, where it has bred, and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The reasons for these remarkable movements are not fully understood, but they have become less frequent, probably due to contraction of the western Siberian range as the steppes become more agricultural.

Diet

Due to their primarily dry diet of seeds, the sandgrouse needs to drink a large volume of water. The sandgrouse's wing morphology allows for fast flight with speeds up to having been recorded. Large flocks of several thousand individuals fly to watering holes at dawn and dusk making round trips of up to per day. Male parents soak their breast plumage in water while drinking, allowing their chicks to drink from the absorbed moisture on their return.

References

External links

Nine photographs (see pulldown menu at page bottom)
a
The Oriental Bird Club
* * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q128002

Pallas's sandgrouse Pallas's sandgrouse (''Syrrhaptes paradoxus'') is a medium to large bird in the sandgrouse family. Naming Marco Polo mentions a bird called ''Bargherlac'' (from Turkmen ''bağırlak'') in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', published around 1300. ...

Birds of Central Asia Birds of Mongolia Birds of North China Birds of Manchuria