Houbara Bustard - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The former Asian subspecies, C. u. macqueenii, has now been split as a full species, Macqueen's Bustard, Chlamydotis macqueenii. These two species are the only members of the Chlamydotis genus. The Canarian Houbara is the subspecies Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae. The dividing line between the two Chlamydotis species is the Sinai peninsula.

The British Ornithologists' Union's Taxonomic Records Committee's decision to accept this split has been questioned on the grounds that the differences in the male courtship displays may be functionally trivial, and would not prevent interbreeding, whereas a difference in a pre-copulation display would indicate that the two are separate species. The committee responded to this scepticism, by explaining that there are differences in both courtship and pre-copulation displays.