Neotis heuglinii
Silhouette: Kai Caspar · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Heuglin's bustard (Neotis heuglinii) is a species of bird in the bustard family. The bird was initially described by Theodor von Heuglin and Gustav Hartlaub, although only Hartlaub is normally credited as the author. Hartlaub, a curator at the Bremen Museum of Natural History, coined the species epithet for Heuglin, who collected the specimens and made measurements in the field near Somalia.
It is a fairly large species, at up to 89 cm (35 in) in length. The males weigh 4–8 kg (8.8–17.6 lb) and the much smaller females weigh 2.6–3 kg (5.7–6.6 lb). Other than size, sexes differ considerably in appearance. The striking male has a large back marking over the crown down the face to the chin with a bluish-grey neck. On the male, a chestnut band on the lower chest which is separated from the white belly by a thin black band. The female is much more of a subdued brownish color overall, with no bold black markings and has a face lined with faint slate-gray markings. In flight, the species reveals a white primary wedge on the otherwise dark upperwing, a feature obscured when the species is standing.
The Heuglin's bustard is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and... Wikipedia →
Recording0:27
Kenya · 2024
© Yvonne A. de Jong · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's Bustard sighting in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 233rd most-seen of the 345 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, July and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Heuglin's Bustard in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, August and October–April, the lowest months. Those are among Tsavo East National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in November.
Only Tsavo East National Park, in our data
Tsavo East National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Heuglin's Bustard sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Otididae
The closest relatives of the Heuglin's Bustard that you can see in Tsavo East National Park (family Otididae, Bustards) are Buff-Crested Bustard (about 40%), White-bellied Bustard (about 40%) and Kori Bustard (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Heuglin's Bustard is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo East National Park (27 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.
