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Portrait of Great bustard

Nature · Birds

Great bustard

Endangered (IUCN, uplisted 2023) · c. 44,000–57,000 birds

Otis tarda — Otididae

The heaviest flying bird in the world, a huge steppe bird of Iberia, central Europe and central Asia, with verified males reaching about 21 kg. Displaying males transform themselves into a mass of white feathers in a posture known as the foam bath. Hunted to extinction in Britain by 1832, it has been reintroduced to Salisbury Plain since 2004, and now breeds there in the wild; globally it was uplisted to Endangered in 2023.

How to spot them

  • ▸A very large, heavy, long-legged bird of open plains, sandy-brown above with fine black barring and white underparts
  • ▸Breeding males have long white whisker-like bristles from the base of the bill and a rufous breast band
  • ▸Enormous size difference between the sexes: males can be two to three times the weight of females
  • ▸Display: the male inverts wings and tail and inflates a gular pouch until he becomes a white ball, the 'foam bath'
  • ▸Flight is powerful with deep, slow, deliberate wingbeats and very large white wing panels

How to know it

The heaviest flying bird in the world, with verified males of about 21 kg

Great bustard (Otis tarda); the kori bustard is the usual rival claimant.

The displaying male turns himself inside out into a white ball, a posture called the foam bath

Great bustard.

Extinct in Britain by 1832, it was brought back to Salisbury Plain from 2004 and now breeds there

Great bustard — the Great Bustard Group's reintroduction, the only successful one in the world.

It is the county bird of Wiltshire and appears, with supporters, on the county's coat of arms

Great bustard.

Iberia holds roughly 60 per cent of the world population, which in 2023 was uplisted to Endangered

Great bustard — IUCN Red List.

Among the most extreme size differences between the sexes of any bird: males can weigh three times as much as females

Great bustard — sexual size dimorphism.

Males have been observed eating blister beetles containing cantharidin, apparently to purge parasites

Great bustard — a proposed case of self-medication.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Male 90–105 cm long, typically 10–16 kg with verified records to about 21 kg; female 75–85 cm and 3.5–5 kg
  • •IUCN Red List: Endangered — uplisted from Vulnerable in 2023; the global population is put at roughly 44,000–57,000 birds
  • •Spain and Portugal hold about 60 per cent of the world total; other strongholds are Russia, Mongolia, Hungary and Turkey
  • •Britain's last native birds were shot out by 1832, in Suffolk; the Great Bustard Group began releases on Salisbury Plain in 2004
  • •The UK population now runs at roughly 100 free-living birds, and since 2019 all releases have been from home-bred stock
  • •Males display at a lek; females raise the young alone, nesting in a scrape in open grassland or crops
  • •The main modern threats are agricultural intensification, collision with power lines and hunting
  • •Otis is the Greek for bustard; tarda is often glossed as 'slow', though it may derive from a Spanish word
  • •The family Otididae contains about 26 species, including the kori bustard and the Critically Endangered great Indian bustard

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