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Little Bustards are relatively large grassland birds. Their plumage, in particular in eclipse and the females all year round, is cryptic. The breeding plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Males reach maturity in the third calendar year, at which point they obtain a wide black neckband bordered by white bands at bottom and top and a second, narrow black band across the chest. The upper neck and the sides of the head are grey, merging into greyish-brown streaks along the crown. The underparts below the neck bands are white. The upperparts are greyish-brown with fine barring. Female Little Bustards have a grey belly, vent and undertail, plus a grey patch from the throat to the sides of the neck. Otherwise their plumage is cryptic, with grey/brown/black barring all over. While the coverts make the wings of both sexes look cryptic when folded, they are extensively white in flight, with black tips on the primaries, a small black "hook" across the primaries and small black dots on the ends of the secondaries. In eclipse, males look the same as females. Both sexes have orange-brown irises, a slightly down-curved short triangular bill and greyish-yellow legs and feet. Sub-adult males gradually develop a widening neck band during the breeding season, starting from the bottom. Males in eclipse and juveniles resemble females.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Little Bustard is available HERE .

Little Bustards are a partly sedentary, partly migratory species. Their overall distribution ranges from far north-western Africa and parts of western Europe in the West to central Asia (near the border of Kazakhstan with China) in the East. In the South of their range they reach parts of Asia Minor, the Levant and Afghanistan and large parts of Pakistan, including part of the coastline. Little Bustards are sedentary or locally migratory in south-western and western Europe, while elsewhere (in Asia) they are breeding migrants in the northern parts of their range, wintering farther south. For more details refer to a field guide.

In Europe Little Bustards are present in much of Iberia (except the North-west and parts of the North coast and the Pyrenees), southern and central France and on Sardinia. Otherwise they are only found in the far South-east of the continent, from the Crimean peninsula to the Caucasus mountain range. There are some reports of vagrants from southern England, the Benelux countries and even southern to central Scandinavia. Former populations in Apulia, Italy, and in Hungary and North Macedonia are extinct or presumed extinct.

Little Bustards have a preference for open grassland with growth that is tall enough to provide cover.

J. Pires reports spotting a group of Little Bustards in the Tejo estuary, Portugal, in July 2019. Next, a Little Bustard was found in the same area in November 2021. Another small mob was spotted in ZPE Mourao, Mourao, Evora, Portugal, in February 2022. All sighting, photographic and audio information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by J. Pires.