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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing sandgrouses. There are 16 living sandgrouse species. As their common name suggests, these birds live in largely sandy habitats such as deserts, scrublands, and savannahs. Some species even have feathery feet to help them trek across the sand! Sandgrouses live throughout Africa and parts of Europe and Asia with one species isolated to Madagascar and another species living in treeless Tibetan plateaus. Water is essential for these birds to survive in their arid home, and sandgrouses require permanent water sources from which they can regularly drink. Some individuals fly upwards of 100 miles (160 km) a day just to drink!

Aside from living in dry locations, these birds have a dry diet. Sandgrouses almost exclusively eat seeds. They may take these from the ground or directly from seed bearing plants. In places where species overlap, the different species go about eating in different ways to help ensure both groups get fed! For example, some may sift carefully through the dirt to find hidden morsels while others thrash about and take what's easy to see. These birds also consume grit to help with digestion.

Sandgrouses look similar to pigeons, and for a long time they were believed to be closely related, however, new research suggests this is inaccurate. Sandgrouses do not coo, they don't build stick nests, and their young are precocial. While they do suck up water into their bill similar to a pigeon, they don't swallow this down immediately. Instead, like most birds, sandgrouses have to throw their head back to get the water down. It's for these reasons, along with genetic evidence, pigeons and sandgrouses are no longer classified together. Instead, the sandgrouses are currently believed to be more closely related to shorebirds such as plovers.

Sandgrouses range in size from 9 to 16 inches (22 to 40 cm) in length. Again, their sandy name comes into play when considering their coloration. These birds blend in with their environment. They're sandy brown with stripes and bands to help breakup their outline. This is especially true of female sandgrouses who incubate their eggs during the day. Raptors, the sandgrouses most prominent predators, search for their quarry from above. Because the female sandgrouse's feathers create such perfect camouflage, they're almost impossible to spot from above while they're exposed on their nests.

Sandgrouse nests are nothing more than small scrapes in the dirt. These birds nest away from the rest of their flock in monogamous pairs. Each nest contains an average of three eggs and both parents help to keep them warm– the female during the day and the male at night. It takes just under a month for the eggs to hatch and all of the chicks leave as soon as the last one has emerged. These baby birds travel with their parents and learn how to eat immediately. It takes about five years from the time a sandgrouse hatches for it to successfully produce its own offspring. Sandgrouse parents shade their chicks during the day and brood them at night, but probably the most important role the parents play is ensuring their offspring have water.

Because the sandgrouse babies can't fly at first, they don't have access to permanent water sources upon their birth. To compensate for this, their parents travel back and forth, carrying water in their chest feathers between the watering hole and their territory. A sandgrouse parent has special feathers that retain water which helps them transport this life giving liquid to their offspring. Even when they don't have mouths to feed, these birds must still travel for water, and it's during this time they form huge flocks. It's not uncommon to see thousands to hundreds of thousands of sandgrouses all flying and gathering together at the same watering place each day! Gathering in groups helps them avoid predators; there's safety in numbers!

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