Pin-tailed sandgrouse

    Pterocles alchata

Castilian: Ganga ibérica

Catalan: Ganga

Gallego: Ganga

Euskera: Ganga azpizuria

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Pterocliformes

Family: Pteroclididae

Migratory status: Permanent resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

On the National List of Threatened Species, it appears in the “Vulnerable” category. In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Vulnerable”.

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THREATS

The most important problem is the loss of its habitat due to an increase in farming, the reduction of land boundaries and fallow land, reforestation of farm land, and the increase in olive groves and irrigation systems. Other important factors are the advances of urbanisation, pesticides, illegal hunting and increased livestock population. All of those problems have caused a decline in the population and in its area of distribution.

Length / size: 31-39 cm / 55 cm

Identification: Robust, stout bird (although smaller than the black-bellied sandgrouse) that has a mimetic colour pattern.The male's back has golden ocelli, which he loses in winter; his face is orange; his dark eyes are surrounded by a blue eye-ring; his ocular stripe and throat are black; his neck and nape are a greenish-orange colour which gives way to his brown breast that is surrounded by two black stripes, and his belly is white. The female is similar but her colours are duller; her throat is white, she has three black stripes on her neck and breast, her back is more greyish-black and some parts of her ocelli are blue. In flight the bird's pointed wings, which are white and black underneath, are visible.

Song: It makes a squawk that resembles the jackdaw's call, "kataaa" and "gaaaa".

Diet: It feeds on small seeds from herbaceous, preferrably leguminous, plants. It generally consumes more grains in summer and wild seeds in winter. This diet demands frequent water consumption because of its low water content.

Reproduction: The breeding period runs from April to August. Both sexes build the nest, incubate the eggs (the male at night and in the morning, and the female the rest of the day) and care for the chicks. The eggs are laid on the ground, protected by a bush or rock, and they are cryptic. The chicks are also mimetic and leave the nest a few hours after being born.

HABITAT

It is found in non-irrigated grain farms, semi-arid pasturelands, fallow land and pebbly lands. It requires accessible and unobstructed watering holes near its breeding sites. It usually breeds from sea level up to an elevation of 1,000 metres.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: It breeds in five well-defined areas: the Northern Plateau, the Ebro Valley, Extremadura, the Southern Plateau, and the Guadalquivir marshes.

In Castile and León: It breeds in all the provinces, although in many of them it does so rarely and provisonally. The most important concentrations are found in the grain-producing regions of the southern part of the River Duero.

Movements and migrations: It is thought that it makes movements within the peninsula, although they are little known or unknown. This could explain the winter population increases in the Southern Plateau and in Doñana.

POPULATION

In Spain:

In Castile and León: There is an estimated population of 250-550 breeding specimens.