Black-faced Sandgrouse

Pterocles decoratus

Other Pics: Immature Black-faced Sandgrouse , Female Black-faced Sandgrouse

Other Names

  Bridled Sandgrouse, Masked Sandgrouse   Ganga à face noire   Schmuckflughuhn   Ganga Decorada   Svartmaskad flyghöna     Grandule faccianera

World: East Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

Kenya: Locally common up to 1600m in bushed habitats, mostly in semi arid regions. More common in the south of the country. North of the Equator virtually absent west of the Rift Valley.

An attractively patterned bird with very clear, clean markings. There are 2 similarly marked sandgrouse (the Four-banded and Lichtenstein's) but neither of these has a black throat. The male (left), is easily distinguished from the female (right) by the black mark through the face and the white stripes above the eye. The immature (centre) shows white-tips to the feathers.