#1219 · 🐦 birds
Pin-tailed Sandgrouse
🇳🇱 Witbuikzandhoen ·Pterocles alchata
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The pin-tailed sandgrouse ( Pterocles alchata ) is a medium large bird in the sandgrouse family. It has a small, pigeon like head and neck and a sturdy, compact body. It has long pointed wings, which are white underneath, a long tail and a fast direct flight. Flocks fly to watering holes at dawn. The call is a loud kattar-kattar . This gregarious species breeds on dry open treeless plains and similar habitats. Its nest is a ground scrape...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 1,135 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Weighs only about 250 g.
- Scientifically named in 1766 (260 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Pin-tailed Sandgrouse
- Nederlands
- Witbuikzandhoen
- scientific name
- Pterocles alchata
- class
- Aves
- order
- Pterocliformes
- family
- Pteroclidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 902
- sightings worldwide
- 1,135
- GBIF records in NL
- 18
- weight
- 250 g
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1766
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Pteroclidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 117078, Wikidata Q753741, GBIF 2480204, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.