About this species
The Asian Houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) is a large, sandy-brown bustard with a prominent black-and-white ruff on the neck and a slow, elaborate courtship display. It inhabits arid and semi-arid plains, sandy deserts and shrub steppe from the Middle East across Central Asia to western China and Mongolia.
The species is partially migratory: northern populations breed in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and move south to winter in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Pakistan and north-west India. It is heavily pursued by Arab falconers, and unsustainable harvesting — both legal and illegal — has driven significant declines.
Conservation programmes in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan involve captive breeding and release, but wild populations remain under pressure from hunting, habitat degradation and agricultural encroachment.