Scientific name: Otis tarda Linnaeus, 1758
Bird group: Cranes and Bustards
Field characters. 75-105 cm. Easily distinguished by its huge, robust body and long, thick neck and legs. Male with head and neck ash-grey and with long white moustachial feathers; upperparts sandy, strongly barred black; upper breast creamy-yellow, grading into chestnut band on lower breast and base of neck; underparts white. Uppertail cinnamon with black subterminal bar and white rim; undertail white with subterminal black bar. Folded wings pale grey; in flight wings appear mainly white with black primaries. Flies with neck extended; gait is a slow, deliberate walk. Female smaller and slimmer than male, but large range of overlap in size with immature males.
Voice. Silent. In the breeding season sometimes a low, gruff bark.
Distribution. Scarce and local resident; decreasing. Range fragmented due to habitat destruction.
Habitat. Open grasslands and extensive and little disturbed cultivation.
Food. Feeds on plants and invertebrates by grazing while moving slow through vegetation or by pursuing moving prey. Diet consists of young shoots, leaves, flowers, and seeds of various plants, insects, and, to a lesser extent, earthworms, molluscs, small vertebrates.