165 : Yellow-throated Sandgrouse

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse - Pterocles guttaralis

This is the male bird - showing well on a game drive while on safari in Tanzania.

A trip to the Ngorogoro Crater today. The conservation area itself consists of the world's largest caldera - a giant extinct volcano crater. You climb up out of the platueau above the Great Rift Valley for some 600 m or 2,000 feet to get to the lip of the crater. The sides of the caldera are heaviliy forested with cloud forest and the road up is used by elephants, lions and other creatures to trek up and over into the basin of the crater.

Above - the view into the crater from its rim. The crater itself is a must-see in Tanzania although for wildlife generally it is far too crowded and "canned". Every sighting attracts a rush of safari vans so its very hard to get any peace to appreciate whats on offer. A day is enough. Having said that the crater and its sides/lip are full of interesting birds with a good diversity given the habitat on the sides and the high plateau of the basin itself.

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse are one of 18 Sandgrouse species. These birds are specialists of the high African plains (800-2,000 m) - they are also found in places like Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Angloa, Uganda, Namibia and Zimbabwe. When you think that the highest mountains in the UK are at 1,100 m or so thats pretty high.

While the male is striking I think the female above with her cryptic mottled plumage is even more beautiful. These birds will be ground nesting and the crater is full of Jackals and foxes all of whom will predate on eggs and chicks. You could easily scuttle past the female as she lay still in long grass.

Above - a Silver-backed Jackal - a common scavenger in the crater.

Sandgrouse as a family are specially adapted to deal with dry climates, flying long distances to find water in large flocks and then storing it in crops and specially adapted chest feathers and down. It is always counter-intuitive to think of high places as dry but in Tibet where there are high dry plateua the sandgrouse species there will fly to the edge of the melt water to drink before returning onto the arid plains.

This pair were showing really well - and stunning in the golden light in the crater.

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Pterocles gutturalis

Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania

21 July 2012