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Sand Grouse You may have already noticed in the picture that sand grouses look like light brown pigeons. In fact, they are distant relatives of the pigeon, living in the deserts of Africa and Asia. They like to nest in stony, barren ground away from water and predators like fennec foxes. Sand grouses are great flyers, they can fly more than 115km (70 miles) to get to a waterhole. During the nesting season, sand grouses have to sit on the eggs every second of the day to protect them from the scorching desert sun. Sometimes they even use their wings to shade the nest! When the eggs hatch, the female stays with the chicks while the male flies to the nearest waterhole. Male sand grouses have very absorbent belly feathers to soak up the water. Then, the male will fly back to the nest and the chicks will drink the water from their dad's wings. This will be done each day until the chicks are able to fly to the waterhole by themselves.
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