Impact of Falconers on the Houbara Bustard Bustards are medium-sized to large terrestrial birds of arid or scrub plains in the Old World. They include both the heaviest of all flying birds, up to 15 kg, such as the male great bustard, Otis tarda , and the Kori bustard, Ardeotis kori. Other bustard species are scarcely larger than a partridge, like the little bustard Tetrax tetra . Bustards typically have rather short bills, long slender necks, and stout bodies with short tails, which are supported on fairly long legs with only three toes on each foot. The scales on the legs are hexagonal.
Bustards lack both a crop and oil glands.
Their bodies are covered with dense, friable, powder-down. Males are generally larger than females, especially in the larger species, and they have more showy plumage. The courting behavior involves an attractive display of the plumage, along with flight figures, leaps, or resounding calls. The first record of human association with bustards dates from 4,000 to 6,000 BC in the form of a simple outline drawing in the Tajo Segura cave in southern Spain. The drawing is unmistakably that of a great bustard and an early hunter.