Black-bellied Bustard

Male
Photo by rudydbn
Mkhuze Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, September 2004

Lissotis melanogaster

Identification

Photo © by volker sthamer
Ngorongoro crater, Tanzania, 7 September 2019

Length 58 to 65 cm

Male

• Upper parts light brown upperparts with black and brown streaks and spots
• Underparts black
• Head black, white, and buff
• Long, thin light brown neck with a thin black line down the front, which which continues and broadens out to a black breast and belly
• Brown and buff tail with four or five narrow dark brown bands
• Upper wings white with a brown triangle at the base
• Yellow legs and bill
  

Photo by DARKROOM IMAGES

Female

• Plain buff with darker brown mottling on back, thin, wavy lines on neck and breast
  

Juvenile

• Duller and darker, dark grey crown, buff spots on the wing

Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taxonomy

Eupodotis vs. Lissotis

Some authorities (Sibley & Monroe, 1996) lump the genus Lissotis within Eupodotis. however there now seems to be a consensus for using Lissotis..

Subspecies¹

• L. m. melanogaster - Senegal to Ethiopia, s Angola and Mozambique
• L. m. notophila - SE Africa s of the Zambezi to w Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Habitat

Woodland and tall open grassland.

Behaviour

The diet includes grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars, seeds and small vertebrates.

References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2008. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Wikipedia

External Links

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