Ardeotis arabs
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The Arabian bustard (Ardeotis arabs) is a species of bustard which is found across the Sahel region of Africa and south western Arabia. It is part of the large-bodied genus, Ardeotis, and, though little known, appears to be a fairly typical species in that group.
In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the Arabian bustard in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Edwards' hand-coloured etching was based on a live specimen that had been kept by Hans Sloan at his house in London. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the Arabian bustard with the other bustards in the genus Otis. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Otis arabs and cited Edwards' work. The specific epithet arabs is Latin meaning "Arabian". The Arabian bustard is now placed in the genus Ardeotis that was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Emmanuel Le Maout.
Four subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
Call0:11
Ethiopia · 2014
© Andrew Spencer · XC209985 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Arabian Bustard sighting in Awash National Park on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 120th most-seen of the 217 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Arabian Bustard in Awash National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June–August, October and December–January, the lowest months. February–March, May and September have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Arabian Bustard sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Awash National Park, in our data
Awash National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Arabian Bustard sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Arabian Bustard is recorded against all the birds logged in Awash National Park (18 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
