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Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse are roughly bantam chicken-sized, mostly ground-dwelling birds. Their highly cryptic plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. Males have a pale orange-grey-brown head, while the body plumage is predominantly grey-brown, with a faint giraffe-like pattern all over. The most prominent feature is a narrow dark-brown breast band. The wing feathers end in dark-brown tips, giving them a shingled appearance. Females have fawn sides of the head and grey-brown body plumage, with dark-brown streaking on crown and neck, while the back and wings are heavily barred dark-brown. On the front the chin is pale orange-brown. The neck and chest are heavily streaked down to a dark-brown breast band, below which the upper belly is light grey-brown. The lower belly, vent and undertail coverts are finely barred dark-brown on light grey-brown. Females have prominet blue-grey eye-rings. Except for the leading and trailing edges, the underwings and belly of both sexes appear near-black dark-brown when seen from a distance. The irises of both sexes are black. The slightly down-curved bill is grey. The legs and feet are also grey.

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 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse is available HERE .

There are at least 3 races of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse whose range extends from the West African coastline in Mauretania, through sub-Saharan Africa, via parts of Arabia, to southern Asia. In Africa nominate race "exustus" populates tropical northern sub-Saharan Africa. In the East of the continent, they are found farther to the South, down to northern Tanzania. Race "erlangeri" populates parts of Arabia and the southern tip of Iran. Race "hindustan" is found in the border region of Pakistan and India, and in the western half of the Indian subcontinent.

In Arabia Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, race "erlangeri", are found in coastal areas from the south-western Saudi Arabian coastline through coastal Yemen and Oman, up to the northern tip of the Arabian peninsula, and on into the UAE.

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse have a preference for semi-desert country with some vegetation, but will also stay near humans on the fringes of parks and agricultural land.

Race "erlangeri"

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, race "erlangeri", were first spotted by us in semi-desert country on the fringes of the Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, in March-April 2010. Subsequently, they were seen several times flying over.