[5][4][verification needed] Psophia undulata was the scientific name proposed by Joseph Franz von Jacquin in 1784 who described a houbara brought from Tripoli to Vienna's Tiergarten Schönbrunn.

[6] Otis macqueenii was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1832 for a bustard from India drawn by Thomas Hardwicke.

[11] 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 Asian houbara or MacQueen's bustard which was earlier included in this species occurs east of the Sinai Peninsula.

The North African species is sedentary unlike the migratory northern populations of MacQueen's bustards.

[16] It rarely vocalizes, but males make 3-5 low booming notes during breeding displays.

This strategy consists of an integrated approach combining ecology, protection measures in the wild, conservation breeding, and reinforcement programmes.