Yellow Throated Sandgrouse

Photos copyright: AS/monacoeye • Serengeti • Oct 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Yellow Throated Sandgrouse
Latin: Pterocles gutturalis
Other:
Family: Pteroclididae • Sandgrouse

The Yellow-throated Sandgrouse lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of 16 species of Sandgrouse which now have their own order Pteroclidiformes - previously they were lumped with Pigeons in Columbiformes.

Glad to have these photos of the first Sandgrouse on the site, sent in by André. I spent a fruitless afternoon last year marching around La Crau in southern France, in search of the elusive Pin-tailed Sandgrouse.

The general distribution of the other members of the Sandgrouse family is Africa and Asia, with two species in southern Spain, one of which, as mentioned, sometimes ventures into France.

These Yellow-throated Sandgrouse were seen in the Serengeti in Tanzania. The female is pictured above and has strongly contrasting feathers and facial stripe. The male, below left, is duller with a dark neck stripe and also with facial stripe.