Description of Great Indian bustard – Godawan

Great Indian bustard – Godawan complete detail. Description of Great Indian bustard – Godawan. Classification of Great Indian bustard. Habit and habitat Great Indian bustard. They are usually excessively shy and wary. Godawan mostly found in arid and semi-arid grasslands. The Indian Bustard is usually found singly or in 2 or 3 or sometime more.

Size: Male size between 90 to 120 cm to top of crown and Female size between 70 to 90 cm to top of crown.  Adult Weight between 6-18 kg. Brown and white ground bird, with grey head. They feeds on insects, rodents, lizards, frogs, plus seeds, shoots, leaves, herbs, wild berries, oil seeds, cultivated grains and pods of legumes. The usual alarm call of the Great Indian Bustard has been likened to a bark or bellow, something like hook. In the breeding season the cock, which is apparently polygamous, makes a great display before his bevy of admiring hens. He struts about with neck and throat inflated and the feathers puffed out……………

Deep buff above finely vermiculated with black, white below with a broad black gorget on lower breast. Wings are marked with black, brown and grey. Males have a larger black crown, long hind crown feathers and a black band across the breast………….

Breeds practically throughout the year but chiefly between March and September. It usually lay single egg in an year. Color of egg is pale olive-brown and faintly blotched with deep brown. First breeding occurs at five to six years in males and two to three years in females. Only females incubate the egg and nourishing the young ones.

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Distinctive Identification

Size: Male size between 90 to 120 cm to top of crown and Female size between 70 to 90 cm to top of crown.  Adult Weight between 6-18 kg. Brown and white ground bird, with grey head.

Great Indian bustard is Larger than the Vulture. There is a black crown on the forehead, upper body is brown with pale neck.  A tall, long legged bird, reminiscent of a young ostrich, with a characteristic horizontal carriage of the body at right angles to the stout, bare legs.

Deep buff above finely vermiculated with black, white below with a broad black gorget on lower breast. Wings are marked with black, brown and grey. Males have a larger black crown, long hind crown feathers and a black band across the breast.

Classification

Common Name – Great Indian bustard

Local Name – Godawan

Zoological Name – Ardeotis nigriceps

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Chordata

Class – Aves

Order – Gruiformes

Family – Otididae

Genus – Ardeotis

Conservational Status – Schedule – I (Part III), according to wildlife (Protection) act, 1972 and classified as Critically Endangered (CR) by the IUCN.

Distribution

Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, the greater part of Central India, Central Provinces and the Deccan, and parts of thar desert.

Habit and habitat

Godawan mostly found in arid and semi-arid grasslands. The Indian Bustard is usually found singly or in 2 or 3 or sometime more. Indian bustard running at great speed to hide under bush cover.

They squat and rest at times under the shade of trees. Male periodically makes a deep resonant moaning booming call that can be heard for nearly 500m. Another call is a bark or bellow and is said to be made when the bird is alarmed.

They feeds on insects, rodents, lizards, frogs, plus seeds, shoots, leaves, herbs, wild berries, oil seeds, cultivated grains and pods of legumes.

This magnificent bustard affects bare, open semi-desert plains and sparse grass-covered country interspersed with low scrub and bushes or with cultivation. Nests are situated in the open land. It often enters standing crops which hide it completely from view.

They are usually excessively shy and wary and can seldom be approached within gunshot except by subterfuge in the shape of a harmless-looking bullock cart or camel to which the birds have become inured on the countryside. They run at great speed when disturbed and though rather heavy and slow in taking off, are no mean fliers once well launched. It is often sustained over several miles before the bird re-alights, but never at any great height from the ground.

The usual alarm call of the Great Indian Bustard has been likened to a bark or bellow, something like hook. In the breeding season the cock, which is apparently polygamous, makes a great display before his bevy of admiring hens. He struts about with neck and throat inflated and the feathers puffed out. The tail is raised and expanded fanwise, the wings are drooped and ruffled while he utters a low, deep moaning call audible a considerable way off.

Breeds practically throughout the year but chiefly between March and September. It usually lay single egg in an year. Color of egg is pale olive-brown and faintly blotched with deep brown.  First breeding occurs at five to six years in males and two to three years in females. Only females incubate the egg and nourishing the young ones.