Spotted Sandgrouse

The spotted sandgrouse is a ground-dwelling bird of arid regions, about 33 cm long. The male has a small reddish-brown nape surrounded by a band of pale grey extending to the bill and round the neck as a collar, an orange chin, neck and throat, and a grey breast, with a dark belly stripe visible from below in flight. It is found in arid regions of northern and eastern Africa and the Middle East, as far east as north-west India (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a gregarious, diurnal bird, and small flocks forage for seed and other vegetable matter on the ground, flying once a day to a waterhole to drink. Pairs nest apart in the breeding season, laying two or occasionally three eggs in a depression on stony ground without bedding. Chicks eat dry seed and the male brings them water in his soaked belly feathers. In 2016 a flock of about a hundred arrived in Kutch after a gap of 19 years. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of grassland that eats plants and seeds, and does not assign a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).