Tetrax tetrax

The Little Bustard is 40-45 cm long, with a wingspan of 105-115 cm. The male weighs 750-1000 grams, and the female weighs 650-900 grams. It is a medium-sized ground-dwelling bird that looks like a chicken, but has only three toes. It has a sturdy body, a long straight neck, and a small head. The male's head and neck are striking gray, black and white, with sandy brown worm-like patterns on the upper body and white underparts; the female's head and neck have no striking patterns. The wings of both sexes are white, with black tips on the primary flight feathers and primary coverts. The seventh primary flight feather of the male is concave at the top, which makes it make a strange whistling sound when flying. The flying posture is like a wild duck, with the wings flapping under the back.
The upper body of the male bird in the breeding season is light sandy or reddish brown, with worm-like patterns and gray and black patterns. The cheeks and throat are slate gray, the neck and

Distributed in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Croatia, France, Georgia, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
Extinct in: Algeria, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia.
Migrant bird: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Uncertain distribution: Jordan, Libya, Romania, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
In China, it is only distributed in Xinjiang and breeds there. It is found in the Pipachai Desert at the northern foot of Bogda Peak in Tianshan Mountains, the Haloxylon ammodendron Desert in Mosuowan on the southern edge of the Junggar Basin and the Haloxylon ammodendron Desert beside Liuyun Lake, and the Fuhai Desert in the so

Little Bustard, also known as Little Bustard in English, is a large bird of the family Bustard, with no subspecies.

Little Bustards often gather in large groups during the non-breeding season, sometimes up to several thousand, and are active during the day. Male birds in the wintering group have collective display behaviors and confrontation and fighting behaviors with other male birds. It is timid but alert, and will run away or hide immediately when it senses danger.

The little bustard is an omnivorous animal, mainly eating plants and invertebrates, but mainly plants, including tender stems, leaves, flowers, grains and tender grass, and also eats rapeseed and turnip leaves and flowers; invertebrates mainly include snails, annelids and various insects, such as beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, mole crickets, locusts, etc. Vertebrate food includes small frogs and voles, and the chicks mainly eat grasshoppers.

The courtship call of the little bustard is a dry, long-lasting prrt sound. When flying, the fourth primary flight feather can produce a whistle sound.

Little Bustards like to build nests in remote and open grasslands. Most nests are built on the ground in the grass. Usually, natural pits on the ground are used, or the parents dig a pit themselves and put some dead grass inside.

Female birds begin to breed at 1-2 years old, while male birds cannot breed until they are 2 years old. The breeding season of Little Bustards in Xinjiang is from April to May. After the male bird occupies the territory for a few weeks, it begins to pair up. There are two types of pairing relationships: single pairing and multiple pairing (2-3 female birds). The territory area is 4-6 square kilometers, but not less than 1 square kilometer, and the distance between nests is 200 meters. When the male bird is courting, it erects its neck feathers and spreads its tail feathers, circling around the female bird lying flat on the ground. The male bird is also seen dragging its wings when courting. Usually, shallow pits on the ground or surrounding plants are stepped into the pits as nests. The female builds the nest and incubates the eggs. Each nest lays 3-4 eggs (range 2-6 eggs), and can lay a second nest of eggs. The eggs are short and oval, smooth and shiny, olive brown or olive green, with dense dark brown spots and stripes. The incubation period is 20-22 days. The chicks hatch at the same time, and they are precocial birds. They can leave the nest soon after hatching and are cared for and fed by the female bird. They can find food on their own at 5 days old, grow flight feathers at 20-30 days old, and are similar to adult birds at 50-55 days old. The young birds spend their first winter with the female bird.

The distribution area of the Little Bustard has not only shrunk significantly worldwide, but the population has also dropped sharply, mainly due to the destruction of the Little Bustard's habitat and the reduction of its distribution area due to grassland reclamation and overgrazing. As a breeding bird, it has been extinct in Algeria, Tunisia, Greece, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. In some other countries such as Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Iran and Russia, the population is also declining. The population in Xinjiang, China is also very rare.

The endangered factors are habitat destruction, over-cultivation of grasslands and overgrazing, which have caused the little bustard to lose its suitable habitat. Environmental pollution, the use of agricultural machinery and pesticides directly threaten the little bustard, young bustards and bustard eggs during the breeding period. Intraspecific biological characteristics, because the little bustard nests on the ground, the eggs are easily damaged by humans and other animals, which increases the loss of eggs in the nest and causes a decrease in the number.

Listed in Appendix I, II and III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 2019 Edition Appendix II.

Listed in the 2018 ver3.1 of the World Conservation Union Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) - Near Threatened (NT).

Listed in the first level of the List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China.

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