CreatureData

Spotted sandgrouse

Pterocles senegallus (Linnaeus, 1771)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus) is a species in the family Pteroclidae, order Pterocliformes. Recorded adults weigh 255 g to 272 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus)
Photo: Henrik Grønvold · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the spotted sandgrouse

Weight
255 g – 272 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
53 cm – 65 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Granivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
desertsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
30 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2.74 – 3src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the spotted sandgrouse?

SPOTTED SANDGROUSE · WINGSPAN 65 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 65 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the spotted sandgrouse is about 38% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the spotted sandgrouse live?

Not recorded

What is the spotted sandgrouse?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus) is a species of ground dwelling bird in the family Pteroclidae. It is found in arid regions of northern and eastern Africa and across the Middle East and parts of Asia as far east as northwest India. It is a gregarious, diurnal bird and small flocks forage for seed and other vegetable matter on the ground, flying once a day to a waterhole for water. In the breeding season pairs nest apart from one another, the eggs being laid in a depression on the stony ground. The chicks leave the nest soon after hatching and eat dry seed, the water they need being provided by the male which saturates its belly feathers with water at the waterhole. The spotted sandgrouse is listed as being of "least concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in its Red List of Threatened Species.

From the Wikipedia article “Spotted sandgrouse” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spotted_sandgrouse&oldid=1315182392), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the spotted sandgrouse endangered?

The spotted sandgrouse is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the spotted sandgrouse classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPterocliformes
  5. familyPteroclidae
  6. genusPterocles
  7. SpeciesPterocles senegallus (Linnaeus, 1771)

Synonyms Pterocles guttatus, Pterocles senegallus senegallus, Tetrao senegallus

Other names and names in other languages (45)
  • Northern spotted sandgrouseEnglish
  • Saharan sandgrouseEnglish
  • قطا مرقطArabic
  • Сенегалска пустинаркаBulgarian
  • Ganga brizhellekBreton
  • ganga pigalladaCatalan
  • stepokur saharskýCzech
  • iâr diffeithwch frechWelsh
  • Plettet SandhøneDanish
  • TropfenflughuhnGerman
  • Tropfen-FlughuhnGerman
  • makula stepkokoEsperanto
  • Senegala stepkokoEsperanto
  • Ganga moteadaSpanish
  • kõrbevurilEstonian
  • باقرقره خالدارPersian
  • täplähietakyyhkyFinnish
  • Ganga tachetéFrench
  • Steipcholúr ballachIrish
  • Kiark gheinnee vreckManx
  • קטה סנגליתHebrew
  • pjegava sadžaCroatian
  • pettyes pusztaityúkHungarian
  • sivatagi pusztaityúkHungarian
  • DílaspjátraIcelandic
  • Grandule del SenegalItalian
  • セネガルサケイJapanese
  • senegalinė smiltvištėLithuanian
  • raibā smilšvistiņaLatvian
  • SahelzandhoenDutch
  • prikksandhøneNorwegian
  • stepówka rudogardłaPolish
  • ganga-malhadaPortuguese
  • cortiçol-malhadoPortuguese
  • Пустынный рябокRussian
  • Сенегальский рябокRussian
  • DielkosáttoduvváNorthern Sami
  • stepiar plavobruchýSlovak
  • pegasta stepska kokoškaSlovenian
  • Senegalska sadžaSerbian
  • ökenflyghönaSwedish
  • Benekli BağırtlakTurkish
  • рябок сенегальськийUkrainian
  • 斑沙鸡Chinese
  • 點斑沙雞Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the spotted sandgrouse

Other species in the same genus Pterocles.

CompareSpotted sandgrouse vs Black-bellied sandgrouseSpotted sandgrouse vs Pin-tailed sandgrouseSpotted sandgrouse vs Chestnut-bellied sandgrouseSpotted sandgrouse vs Namaqua sandgrouse

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the spotted sandgrouse?

An adult spotted sandgrouse weighs 255 g – 272 g and has a wingspan of 53 cm – 65 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the spotted sandgrouse endangered?

The spotted sandgrouse is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the spotted sandgrouse?

The spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus) belongs to the family Pteroclidae in the order Pterocliformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-sandgrouse

MLA

“Spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-sandgrouse.

BibTeX
@misc{spotted_sandgrouse_2026,
  title = {Spotted sandgrouse (Pterocles senegallus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-sandgrouse},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}