Painted sandgrouse

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Painted sandgrouse (Pterocles indicus) is a medium‑large ground-dwelling bird of the sandgrouse family, found in dry parts of India and Pakistan. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Taxonomy in brief:
- Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Aves; Order: Pterocliformes; Family: Pteroclidae; Genus: Pterocles; Species: indicus
- First described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Tetrao indicus, based on a description by Sonnerat. It is now placed in genus Pterocles (established by Temminck in 1815). Pterocles means “wing” and “notable,” indicus means “Indian.” The species has no subspecies.

Description:
- Males have an orange bill, a black band across a white forehead, fine black lines on the nape, a white patch around the eye, and a broad black‑and‑white band on the chest. The breast and belly are pinkish‑brown; back, wings, and tail are brown with bold black and white bars.
- Females are duller gray‑brown with similar barring.

Habitat and diet:
- It lives in dry regions, including rough grassland, rocky areas, and scrub.
- It mainly eats seeds.

Behavior:
- Painted sandgrouse are social and often gather at waterholes to drink.