Great Bustard Group in Russia

Great Bustards have a fragmented distribution across much of Southern Russia from the Western Trans-Volga region to the far East where the eastern form of Great Bustard O. t. dybowskii is present. The best researched population within Russia is in Saratov Oblast where numbers are believed to be stable with 6-8000 birds present.

Joint Russian and German research proved that females nesting in Saratov moved to an area in Ukraine (just north of the Crimea) for the winter months. However new research by the GBG has shown that Great Bustards stay in Saratov during the winter, even when temperatures plummet to -30 degrees. It seems likely that the depth of snow is the determining factor as to whether the birds move location as deep snow prevents them from feeding.