Their eggs and offspring often very vulnerable to predation. They walk steadily on strong legs and big toes, pecking for food as they go. Most prefer to run or walk over flying. They have long broad wings with "fingered" wingtips, and striking patterns in flight. Many have interesting mating displays, such as inflating throat sacs or elevating elaborate feathered crests. The female lays three to five dark, speckled eggs in a scrape in the ground, and incubates them alone

  

Bustards are all fairly large with the two largest species, the Kori bustard and the Great Bustard, being frequently cited as the world's heaviest flying birds. In both the largest species, large males exceed a weight 44 lb to weigh around 13.5 kg (30 lb) on average and can attaining a total length of 150 cm. The smallest species is the little brown bustard  , which is around 40 cm  long and weighs around 600 g on average. In most bustards, males are substantially larger than females, often about 30% longer and sometimes more than twice the weight. They are among the most  sexually demographics

 

Bustards are omnivorous, feeding principally on seeds and invertebrates. They make their nests on the ground, making groups of birds. In only the Floricans is the sexual dimorphism reverse, with the adult female being slightly larger and heavier than the male.

 

Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large and highly terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They range in length from 40 to 150 cm (16 to 59 in).  

 

The best known bustard is the great bustard, largest European land bird, the male weighing as much as 14 kilograms (31 pounds) and having a 120-centimetre (4-foot) length and a 240-centimetre (8-foot) wingspread. It is found in grain fields and open steppes from central and southern Europe to Central Asia and Manchuria. The sexes are similar in coloration, being grayish above, barred with black and brown, and whitish below. The male is stouter and has whitish, bristly feathers at the base of the bill. A wary bird, the great bustard is difficult to approach, running swiftly when endangered. On land it assumes a stately gait; on the wing, it displays a relatively slow but powerful and sustained flight. The spring courtship ceremonies are characteristic: the cock’s head is bent back almost touching the uplifted tail, and the throat pouch is inflated. Two or three eggs, olive blotched with brown, are laid in a shallow excavation sheltered by low vegetation.

 

By: Vincent Rangel

2/20/2014