Wild Bird Wednesday 722 - Painted Sandgrouse

(This will be a rather brief post this week, due to an unexpected peak in the chaos level here, I thought things were supposed to be more straight forward once you retired!)

The Painted Sandgrouse (Pterocles indicus) is described on E-bird as looking like a 'cross between a dove and a pheasant".  

Looking at a different published source, one of my field guides says 'usually keeping in twos.......sits tight and allows close approach'.

I think both sources have a point here.

We found these two birds very close to a road, and they seem utterly unbothered by our presence.  It's hard to tell but I think the bird in the front is a male, as it has distinct banding on (at least) the upper part of its chest.  I am (even more) unsure about the second bird.

These two birds were essentially immobile for the time we watched them - so I have included images where they have the eyes closed just to show that they were actually alive!

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers SM

PS: I hope normal service will resume soon!  S

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