| Bustards | |
|---|---|
| Kori Bustard | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Otididae Rafinesque, 1815 |
| Genera | |
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Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They make up the family Otididae (formerly known as Otidae).
Bustards are all fairly large and two species, the Kori Bustard and the Great Bustards are frequently cited as the world's heaviest flying birds, since both may exceed 20 kg (44 lbs). The smallest species is the Little Brown Bustard, which is about 40 cm (16 in) and 600 grams (1.3 lbs) on average. In all bustards, males are substantially larger than females, often about 30% longer and twice the weight. They are among the most sexually dimorphic groups of birds.
Bustards are omnivorous, feeding principally on seeds and invertebrates. They make their nests on the ground, making 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.[1]
Bustards are gregarious outside the breeding season, but are very wary and difficult to approach in the open habitats they prefer.[2]
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Most species are declining or endangered through habitat loss and hunting, even where they are nominally protected.[2] The last bustard in Britain died in approximately 1832, but the bird is being reintroduced through batches of chicks imported from Russia;[2] two great bustard eggs were recently laid in Britain for the first time in over 150 years,[3] but were unfertilized – probably owing to the still juvenile male population.
Some Indian bustards are also called Floricans. The origin of the name is unclear. Thomas C. Jerdon writes in The Birds of India (1862)
I have not been able to trace the origin of the Anglo-Indian word Florikin, but was once informed that the Little Bustard in Europe was sometimes called Flanderkin. Latham gives the word Flercher as an English name, and this, apparently, has the same origin as Florikin.—Jerdon's Birds of India, 2nd ed. ii. 625.
The Hobson-Jobson dictionary however casts doubt on this theory stating that
We doubt if Jerdon has here understood Latham correctly. What Latham writes is, in describing the Passarage Bustard, which, he says, is the size of the Little Bustard: Inhabits India. Called Passarage Plover. … I find that it is known in India by the name of Oorail; by some of the English called Flercher. (Suppt. to Gen. Synopsis of Birds, 1787, 229. Here we understand the English to be the English in India, and Flercher to be a clerical error for some form of floriken.
FAMILY: OTIDIDAE