The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is one of the most spectacular European birds. Possibly the world’s heaviest flying bird, males can attain a wingspan of 2,4 meters and a weight of 18 kg. Females are less than a third of that size.

Its populations are often linked to open habitats with extensive agricultural use, and they have suffered a considerable decrease throughout its distribution. Slightly more than half the World’s population is in Spain, where its numbers remain more or less stable at around 25,000 since the ban of its hunting, in 1982. However, many of its local populations have disappeared, and the species is classified as “Vulnerable” due to threats like changes in agriculture and the increasing urbanization of some of its habitat.

Great Bustards are sedentary birds, very attached to their breeding grounds. Every year, as spring approaches, males concentrate in certain sites (known as leks) to display and confront each other in order to establish the hierarchy that will determine which of them will mate with the females later on. This behavior takes place from late February through March and early April, sometimes extending until May depending on the weather. During that time, adult males display a spectacular ritual both to intimidate rivals and to attract females. At the climax of this display, known as rueda (“wheel”), males erect their peculiar beards and fluff and expose their inner white feathers, almost turning into a big snowy ball.

In 2008 the Emberiza Fund initiated talks with the owners of two estates in the Cáceres province in Extremadura, where observations in previous years seemed to indicate the location of one of these display sites. The estates have a total 480 hectares of open, treeless plain, ideal as habitat for steppe birds, and are used as pastures for free-range cattle, with a few cultivated portions. They have three seasonal ponds, used for drinking by cattle and birds.