Region-locked to all across Asia around 45°N ('stans, Mongolia) and in spots all over Europe, especially Poland. A very interesting range, including the Mediterranean coast and Himalayas.
Good luck taming one, though. Also, only males are “bearded”.
Given their range, I wonder if their bulkiness functions to reduce their surface area to volume ratio. Since small birds need to eat a shittone of food compared to their body weight.
Probably. Also, it likely helps that they are omnivorous, and they chonk up for the winter. Some also migrate relatively short distances (blue on map).
I don't know if this is a misunderstanding or if you're deliberately using an additional second meaning for comedic effect.
But @ChaoticNeutralCzech meant 'stans' as 'central Asia' because of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgisistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Yeah the second meaning is also 'Stan'. It got popularized five? years ago now when there was some superfan of a celebrity called Stan who knew everything about them. So if you're super into something like Eminem or a KPop group, you'd say, I stan Taylor Swift.
So if an animal stans the Himalayas, that means they love it so much they live there.