Heuglin's bustard (Neotis heuglinii) is a species of bird in the bustard family.
The bird was initially described by Theodor von Heuglin and Gustav Hartlaub, although only Hartlaub is normally credited as the author. Hartlaub, a curator at the Bremen Museum of Natural History, coined the species epithet for Heuglin, who collected the specimens and made measurements in the field near Somalia.
Description It is a fairly large species, at up to in length.Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi by Stevenson & Fanshawe. Elsevier Science (2001), The males weigh and the much smaller females weigh .CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . Other than size, sexes differ considerably in appearance. The striking male has a large back marking over the crown down the face to the chin with a bluish-grey neck. On the male, a chestnut band on the lower chest which is separated from the white belly by a thin black band. The female is much more of a subdued brownish color overall, with no bold black markings and has a face lined with faint slate-gray markings. In flight, the species reveals a white primary wedge on the otherwise dark upperwing, a feature obscured when the species is standing.
The Heuglin's bustard is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. It occurs in pairs or small groups in arid or semi-arid grasslands, even ranging into desert-edge.
References