The Black-bellied Bustard lives in African savanna and tall grassland. Males perform courtship displays during the breeding season.
Adult males have a black belly, while females are brown with fine markings. The sexes differ in plumage and build.
It feeds on insects and seeds in tall grass and savanna. Males display during breeding and are otherwise often solitary.
A typical clutch has 1–2 eggs laid in a shallow ground scrape. Chicks have brown-and-black down. The female alone incubates, feeds the chicks, and protects them.
It eats beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, and caterpillars, as well as seeds and flower petals.
Females have a white belly and a pale buff head and neck. Immature birds resemble females, with buff edges to the wing feathers.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.