Juvenile Male 
"Young male shot in October has the whole upper plumage, chin, 
throat, breast and upper abdomen a pale isabelline, barred and vermic- 
ulated with blackish-brown; abdomen black and under tail-coverts white 
with black bases; tail-feathers barred black and rufous-buff, black 
and white on the outermost; wing-quills and primary coverts grey, 
tipped with rufous." 
Size and Weight 
The imperial sandgrouse is the largest of its genus. Baker (3) 
records its length as between 13.7 and 15.7 inches with a wing 
measuring between 8.8 and 9.7 inches. Adult males on the average will 
weigh from 1 pound to 1 pound 4 ounces, while females are slightly 
smaller, 
Habitat and Cover Preferences 
Cover 
Sandgrouse, as well as the bustards, are birds typical of arid 
steppes and desert wastes. The imperial sandgrouse also finds to its 
liking extensive areas of scattered grass and weeds, dry-farmed lands 
where the crop is open or sparse, fallow or stubble fields, and dusty 
patches of desert roads or trails. Also favored are moderately to 
heavily grazed arid ranges. Dense cover and forested tracts are 
avoided, 
In its breeding range in Spain, Turkey, and Iran, the imperial 
associates with desert habitats and with arid areas in which some dry 
farming is present. The semidesert steppes of the Anatolian plain 
in Turkey is a vast, dry region, covered sparsely with desert weeds, 
grass, and occasional shrubs or trees about the infrequent watering 
places. Brief winter and spring rains encourage some straggling 
attempts to grow wheat or barley and imperial sandgrouse are there 
in great abundance. Further east, where annual precipitations range 
between 15 and 27 inches, but summer and fall are still very dry, 
the Turks have plowed up large areas of grazing lands and converted 
them to winter wheat. While we drove about these farms, imperials 
were frequently found along the bare shoulders of the road or settled 
comfortably in the deep dust betwen the wheel tracks. From fields 
sparsely covered with weeds and stubble, about 25 birds were flushed 
in 2 miles of travel with the jeep (8). . 
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