Habits of animals, birds. About poultry and its habits Replacement for a domestic parrot

All crows are considered great intellectuals, and the New Caledonian raven species is a genius in the animal world. These birds are able not only to use tools, but also to make them from materials that are not available in their usual habitat. Of the animals, only chimpanzees can do this. But the ability to establish causal relationships has not been found even in chimpanzees.

Biologists conducted an interesting experiment. They launched 2 groups of ravens into the enclosures, where there were boxes of food. There was also a hole in the enclosures where the experimenters stuck a stick to scare the birds away from the box. One group of crows saw a man with a stick, while the other could only see the stick itself.

The crows that saw the person came up to the box and only ate when the person left. They understood that the presence of a person near a stick means that food is not available, but the stick itself does not pose a danger. And the birds in the group that saw only the stick were restless and often gave up trying to get food.

Scientists said that this is the first experiment in which it was possible to prove the existence of causal thinking in animals. In monkeys and dolphins, such abilities have not yet been identified.

interesting video:

The size of the bullfinch does not exceed the sparrow, however, it looks much larger due to its dense physique. This bird belongs to the finches family.

A distinctive feature of males is a red abdomen, as well as cheeks, neck from below and sides have a scarlet tint. In females, this area has an even brownish-gray tone.

Male and female are easy to distinguish from each other. In addition to the color of the chest, they also have differences in plumage. The male has a white wing-stripe, while the poppies do not. Young birds, before the first autumn molt, also differ from adults. Young birds do not have a black cap, they have a dark brown color of all plumage, except for the tail and wings. Theirs are black.

If you observe a brood of bullfinches in the forest, then the differences between the male and female, as well as the younger generation, are very striking.

There are also slight differences in the color of birds, depending on the region of habitat. Birds that live closer to the south of our Motherland have a bright red chest and cheek color. And the closer to the Far East, the brighter this area. On the Kuril Islands, you can meet a bird with a pale pink breast. And again, this only applies to males.

Habitat

The bullfinch bird lives throughout Russia. It is generally accepted that he flies to us in winter. However, this is fundamentally not true. Just in summer, among the foliage, this bird is difficult to notice. But in winter, against the background of white snow - red-breasted bullfinches are very noticeable.

This bird lives in forests where there is a dense undergrowth. Avoids pure pine forests. He is a frequent visitor in city parks and
squares. Prefers not only dense undergrowth, but also adult dense forests, best of all deciduous.

Like other birds, it flies south in winter, and in March it flies back to its nesting site. And by mid-April, they almost completely disappear from the southern and middle latitudes of Russia. The main nesting area of ​​this bird is the northern latitudes up to the Arctic Circle.

These birds inhabit all of Europe, Siberia, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan. The boundaries of their habitat in the south are approximately at the latitude of the Apennine Peninsula, and in the north they are limited by the Arctic Circle.

Bullfinches are sedentary birds, so every April they return to the same nesting place. Families of bullfinches are matriarchal. The snowman gets food here, she also solves “conflict situations”. The male takes care of the offspring.

bullfinch food

These birds have an unusual beak - it is black in color, thick, wide and blunt at the end, with a flat and hard palate. With such a beak it is very convenient to peel seeds from rowan berries, hop cones and juniper. However, the favorite food of these birds is the seeds of ash, maple, alder.

Males are rather phlegmatic and lazy by nature. Therefore, the feeders that people hang out. These birds are very popular. Then the male (and the female too) will not disdain both millet and buckwheat.

These birds build their nests in a "standard", cup-shaped form. The diameter of the nest can reach 20 cm, and the height - 8 cm. The female can lay about 6 eggs. This usually happens by mid-April. Bullfinches prefer to build their nests on spruce trees.

The female incubates the eggs only for the first 10 days, then, after the chicks hatch, she flies away to get food for the family, and the male remains in the nest. The female feeds the chicks with plant foods, bringing insects only by pure chance. In total, the chicks stay in the nest for about 2 weeks. Then they start learning to fly.

In September, the first molt of the younger generation occurs, after which they fly away to the southern latitudes.

Perhaps you are familiar with some of the behavior of birds, and also know that some birds have strange eating habits, migrate in large groups seasonally, overcoming thousands of kilometers without sleep and rest, and also choose unusual places for nests.

However, birds sometimes notice such strange behavior that it may even shock. Are these cute harmless creatures capable of such a thing? It turns out that we still know very little about the birds that live next to us.

The tit can be a dangerous bird

tits- small and rather intelligent garden birds, smaller than a sparrow, with a beautiful and quite innocent appearance. However, you should be aware that these innocent creatures capable of killing.

For example, great tit- an inhabitant of Europe, northeast Africa and some parts of Asia, climbs into hollows where they hide the bats, And peck them to death.

This behavior has been observed in birds in winter when food supplies are very scarce, and they need something to eat, so vegetarians are forced to become predators. Well, this proves once again that appearances are deceptive.

What do seagulls eat?

Speaking of seagulls, we usually imagine coastal birds that feed on fish, but not all gulls are the same, and some can surprise you a lot. Off the coast of Argentina, for example, seagulls are not satisfied only with a fish diet.

dominican gulls regularly attack larger prey, namely, giant right whales, whose body length is over 15 meters. When a whale emerges from the water, seagulls sit on its body and bite off pieces of flesh and fat.

These birds began to show such abnormal behavior because of the too large population, which has increased significantly in recent times. Blame it all a large amount of garbage. There are so many seagulls that they eat almost everything in their path.

Storks: the strange behavior of birds

After conducting detailed studies, scientists from Spain found that 40 percent chicks white storks, which are found in Europe and Asia, leave their natural parents before the "age of majority" and are quickly nailed to the foster family of their neighbors.

What are the motives? Chicks that are not happy with their parents' hunting skills run away from home hoping to find better food from the neighbors.

Hornbill: the male is the only breadwinner in the family

Indian hornbill outwardly similar to toucan and on woodpecker simultaneously. Mostly female birds contribute to the construction of nests, but the situation is somewhat different for these giant forest birds.

Having found a suitable hollow for building a nest, the female climbs into the hollow and lays her eggs there. Meanwhile the male immures the female with the subsequently hatched chicks in their dwelling, building a barrier of dirt, excrement and branches. Only the beak of the female and offspring sticks out of a narrow crack to they could get food from the male- frogs, mice, caterpillars and fruits.

This conscious confinement of the female lasts until the moment until the chicks are ready to fly. Immuring in the nest is vital for birds and their offspring, as the forest is full of predators. The male also has other motives: a forced prison prevents the female from mating with other partners.

Black cockatoo - rock musician of the tropics

strange bird black cockatoo- a resident of the rainforests of Australia and New Guinea, who, with his appearance, resembles punk rocker with a mohawk on his head.

When the male black cockatoo is ready to mate, he plucks a heavy branch of a tree with the help of its massive bent beak and flies with it to some kind of hollow tree. Holding in paws homemade tool, the bird begins to hit the tree with it, giving an impressive performance. If the female likes "drumming", she flies to the noise.

Why do birds fall from the sky?

Jatinga a village located in the Indian state Assam in the very east of the country next to large cliffs. This settlement has become famous among travelers as a strange place of "suicides" of a large number of birds. Among these birds tiger heron, pitta, falcon, white heron and some other rare species.

Rumor has it that birds commit suicide, but this is not true. Birds in these places become so vulnerable that the locals can easily kill them in the air with the help of bamboo sticks. This phenomenon is observed at the end of the monsoon season, especially on dark moonless and foggy nights when the locals make fires, knowing the behavior of birds.

Researchers who worked for a long time in the area concluded that it was all to blame. geographical anomalies and certain conditions in the atmosphere at that time. The combination of certain conditions affects the nervous system of birds, and they lose their orientation, go straight into the paws of hunters, that is, to certain death.

Wren bird: fierce competition in nature

house wren- a small brown bird. This 10 cm resident of the woodlands and gardens of North America is big pest.

Feeding mainly on insects, the wren constantly hunts, defends the territory and destroys the nests of other birds. The males of many species of birds tend to chase away the males of their own species in competition for females, but during their mating season, the housewren not only chases away other birds, but also cuts out entire families.

Creeping up to the nests bluebirds, finches or sparrows, "monsters" wrens pierce eggs, break dwellings. The wren commits such vandalism in relation to any nests that come across it, and instead of them in this territory builds its nests, moreover, with separate females in each.

Weird Swift Sexual Habits

Although most birds prefer to mate in tree cavities, on branches, or on the ground, some feathered species have unusual breeding habits. For example, swifts, small black birds that are found almost everywhere, learned to have sex right in the air during flights.

The most interesting thing is that these birds can develop a fairly high speed - about 300 kilometers per hour, while they do not stop mating at altitude over 600 meters above the ground!

Migratory bird nuthatch builds strange nests

Canadian nuthatch lives in the forests of Canada and in the tropical forests of the Pacific Ocean. This strange bird can walk almost upside down along the trunks and branches of trees, clinging to them with the help of their sharp claws on their paws. With needle-sharp beaks, birds fish out insects and centipedes that hide in the bark.

Arranging a nest in the trunk, the bird does not want these creatures to climb into it, so it came up with a kind of defense. She diligently fences off the nest with a ring of toxic pine tree resin, which allows her to stop and kill predators or pests that try to enter the "holy of holies".

In order not to fall into the trap themselves, the birds neatly fly right into the center of the nest, avoiding its edges, risking being smashed against a tree, since the entrance to the nest is usually quite narrow.

Giant Whitefoot or smoky frogmouth- a strange Australian bird that lives in eucalyptus forests, where there is enough food for them. Frogmouths resemble owls, but have special ways of hunting.

They do not hunt as actively as owls, but freeze on a tree, resembling an old dry branch. When a small bird, frog, lizard or dragonfly approaches them, they open their gigantic mouth and quickly seize the unfortunate prey.

In a fraction of a second, the mouth of the frogmouth slams shut with a loud sound. Prey is swallowed whole. For this bird in the process of hunting required to remain motionless and invisible and close the mouth at the right moment, as carnivorous plants do venus flytrap.

At the very beginning of winter, from the distant northern forests, the most beautiful birds fly to our region - shurs. These are the largest members of the finches family.

Description

Shchur is the closest relative of the bullfinch, up to 22 cm in size and having a very beautiful color. The plumage of males is bright crimson red, on the wings there are two transverse white stripes. Females and juveniles are greyish-orange.

The description of birds, their appearance, is very reminiscent of a crossbill. Schur differs mainly only in the shape of the beak, which looks like a short hooked cone, which makes it easy to pick rowan berries and pick out nuts from pine cones. The tail is dark gray or black in color, rather long, with a small notch at the end.

habitats

The birthplace of schurov is coniferous forests in Scandinavia, Chukotka, Sakhalin, as well as Alaska and Labrador. In these parts, the largest accumulation of birds is observed. In central Russia, they can be found in the autumn-winter period. Mass arrival occurs irregularly and depends on the amount of food in the homeland.

In severe winter, arrived birds of the schura can populate parks, city squares, feeding on seeds, buds and berries of various species of trees and shrubs, less often insects.

Lifestyle and habits

In character, these birds are very similar to the crossbill and bullfinch. They are just as sociable, good-natured and so trusting that they allow a person to come very close, at arm's length. Shchuras settle in our area where there are apple and mountain ash trees, as well as coniferous trees. Juniper fruits are a special delicacy for them. But the main food is the fruits of mountain ash, which allow you to maintain such a beautiful crimson color. Often, smurfs gnaw out the pulp of these berries, leaving footprints on the ground that are very reminiscent of the footprints of feeding bullfinches. In the north-east of the country, birds inhabit cedar thickets, preferring pine nuts to all other types of food. Shchur has a very positive attitude to water, loves to swim, managing to do it even in winter.

These songbirds have an amazingly beautiful, clear voice, reminiscent of the sounds of a flute. Only the male sings, and in the off-season the song sounds much louder.

Nesting

Around March, the birds return to their nesting sites. At first they form pairs and only in June they start building a nest. It is arranged at the trunk of a coniferous tree, less often - on the side branches, at a height of 2-4 meters. Outwardly, it looks rough, the bottom is lined with the hair of forest animals, lichen and thin grass. In the clutch there are from 3 to 5 eggs 24-26 mm in size, bluish-green in color with soft brown spots of varying intensity.

Shchura birds distribute their parental responsibilities equally: the female incubates the eggs, and the male feeds his chosen one. During this period, they feed on the buds of spruce, birch, overwintered lingonberries and cone seeds. Birds are very trusting when a person appears near the nest, sometimes even allowing you to photograph the chicks. Both parents take care of the emerging chicks. The babies are covered with a gray-brown fluff and are distinguished by a raspberry-colored oral cavity with a pink tongue. In the diet of chicks, various insects occupy most of the time. At about two weeks of age, the chicks leave their nest. When the troubles associated with the young are over, the schury birds gather in flocks, spending the winter south of their nesting sites.

The gullible and sociable nature of the schurs makes it possible to keep them in captivity, where they very quickly adapt to the conditions of life in a cage or aviary, get used to a person and become almost tame. If you provide them with good care, when living conditions are as close as possible to natural ones, then these songbirds can live a long life, delighting their owners with their singing, and even give birth.

Considering that the homeland of these birds is located in the northern regions, it is necessary to keep schurov in the coolest place, change the water as often as possible, giving them the opportunity to swim, they always do it with pleasure.

It is recommended to feed the birds with rowan berries, seeds and grains, leaving cones of coniferous trees in the cage. Unfortunately, males, living in captivity, eventually lose their unusual color. Their plumage first acquires a yellowish-orange color, and then turns even paler.

Like any other bird of the finch family, the shur does not always withstand captivity, and it happens that, once in a cage, it dies after a few days for unknown reasons.

Actual

Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous

The progressive development of the central nervous system and sensory organs, a high level of metabolism and warm-bloodedness provided birds with significantly greater mobility compared to reptiles, expanded their perception of the world around them and complicated their behavior. Elements of active adaptation of the environment to their needs are more clearly manifested - nest building, food storage, group overnight stays, etc.

The basis of bird behavior make up complex complexes of hereditarily fixed innate (unconditioned) reflexes that determine the most important elements of their life: the meeting of the sexes, nest building, incubation and rearing of young animals, receptions, food production, migration, and much more. The unconditioned stimuli are individual elements of the environment (place for a nest and suitable building material for nest-building, shortening of the day and deterioration of food opportunities during migration, etc.) and other individuals of their species (their postures, movements and cries, the open beak of a begging for food chick, etc.). But the behavior of each bird is significantly enriched and improved by acquiring individual experience (ie, the development of conditioned reflexes). Imitation of the behavior of parents or pack partners facilitates the development of temporary connections and increases the possibilities of expedient behavior when the external environment changes - the appearance of new food, new sources of danger, etc. Due to this, the experience of one individual becomes the experience of the population. All this increases survivability.

Birds have been found to have "extrapolation reflexes" - the ability to predict the next development of events (L. V. Krushinsky). So, when a car approaches, many birds fly off the road to the side of the road and after that do not react to a passing car; thus, the bird estimates where the car will pass. The predator often waits for prey that has slipped into the bush at the opposite side of the bush. Such behavior can be considered as a manifestation of elements of rational activity, not expressed in reptiles. Extrapolation reflexes are better developed in species that feed on mobile prey - crows, predators, etc.

Birds are affected- a state of fear, anger, joy, peace, which also corresponds to a certain external expression: postures, position of plumage, sounds made. Undoubtedly, the presence of a long-term memory (the parrot recognized his mistress after 19 years). Birds are also capable of associations. For example, crows distinguish a hunter with a gun from a man with a stick, etc.

Population organization of birds much more complex and diverse than that of reptiles. It changes with the seasons of the year. Attachment to a certain territory is especially pronounced during the breeding season. - Usually, solitary nesting birds occupy a certain area immediately adjacent to the nest (nesting territory), to which other individuals of their species are not allowed. If food is collected far from the nest, then the protected area will be small. In many species, especially small passerine birds, the nesting territory coincides with the feeding area and is vigorously defended. Skirmishes on the border of the protected area are largely of a tournament nature. Almost always, the owners of the site win (the right of the first, and not the stronger one, is exercised). Due to this, the population more or less evenly populates a suitable territory, effectively using its food resources.

Some of the birds that are able to forage far from the nest nest in colonies (tube-nosed, copepods, ankle-footed, from passerines - rooks, starlings, swallows, etc.). At the same time, the size of the territory protected from neighboring individuals is often only equal to the distance to which the incubating bird can extend its beak. Colony sizes vary from a few tens of pairs to tens of thousands of nesting pairs (for example, in some penguins or the African red-billed weaver - Q. quelea). Mixed colonies are often formed, in which each species occupies the most convenient areas for it. Located along the northern sea coasts, the so-called bird colonies are usually formed by several species. Murmurs nest in dense groups on wide rocky ledges, laying their eggs on the rock without any nest. Kitten gulls build voluminous nests on small ledges of rotting algae. In narrow crevices, more often in the lower part of the cliff, guillemots nest, and puffins dig nesting holes in the peat covering the rocks. These species make up the main population of the bird colonies of the European North.

colonial nesting allows the use of available food resources and areas suitable for nesting with maximum efficiency, and also ensures greater safety for the members of the colony, since some predators do not dare to approach such accumulations, while others are actively driven away by joint attacks by members of the colony. For example, gulls and terns successfully drive away even predators such as fox and arctic fox from the colony. In relation to each other, members of the colony show reduced aggressiveness, react to alarm signals from individuals of their own and other species.

After the end of the breeding season, only a few adult birds remain in their nesting areas until the next breeding season (ravens, great spotted woodpeckers, etc.).

Most species change their sedentary lifestyle to a nomadic one. In some species, which are called sedentary, these migrations are limited to a small area (moving for kilometers, less often tens of kilometers), for the rest, the length of migrations can be hundreds and thousands of kilometers (the last group of species is called migratory). Movements allow birds to choose more foraging areas, use the best shelters from bad weather when roosting.

Outside of the breeding season, relatively few species stay alone or in pairs, most of the species, even solitarily nesting, unite in groups or flocks, including tens and hundreds of individuals (ducks, rooks, starlings and many others). In some species, families (young ones with parents) retain a certain isolation in flocks (geese, cranes), in others, when flocks are formed, families break up. In packs, a certain organization usually occurs, based on dominance-submission relations, which prevents skirmishes between members of the pack and ensures their coordinated behavior. Sometimes mixed flocks are formed, consisting of individuals of several species. For example, in autumn and winter in our forests it is not uncommon to meet wandering mixed flocks of several species of birds, which are accompanied by 1-3 nuthatches, 1-2 large spotted woodpeckers. The herd lifestyle facilitates the search for food (at the same time a large area is examined) and makes it easier and faster to detect danger.

annual cycles. Seasonal change in conditions, life (weather) in most parts of the world determines the annual rhythm of imputing the state of the body (including the level and nature of metabolism), behavior and population organization of birds. The restructuring of the hormonal system that causes this rhythm is carried out according to the signals of the external environment. In temperate and high latitudes, the light regime (change in the length of day and night) is of paramount importance as such a signal, in the tropics - the alternation of dry and wet periods. Important, but additional signals are the general course of weather conditions, the quantity and quality of available feed. The timing, duration and nature of the manifestation of individual phases of the annual cycle are different for different groups of birds and are determined by the climatic features of the areas inhabited by them, the nature of the habitats occupied and the specific ecological characteristics of food specialization and methods of obtaining food, the duration of incubation and postembryonic growth, etc.). The following main periods of the annual cycle can be distinguished.

1. Breeding preparation. The beginning of the development of the gonads under the influence of increasing day length. Moving to breeding grounds from wintering grounds, in some cases formation of pairs already on wintering grounds or during migration. In some species, the end of the premarital molt, which began during wintering, is completed.

2. Reproduction. Occupation of nesting sites, current phenomena, formation of pairs, maturation of germ cells, construction of nests, laying of eggs, incubation and feeding of chicks. It ends when young birds, fully fledged and having acquired the ability to fly, begin an independent life, often uniting in flocks. In these flocks there can be both adults and young, but the connections between the chicks and their parents usually break off with an exception: geese, swans, cranes, etc.).

3. Post-breeding molt. In birds, after breeding, there is a complete post-nesting molt, when all the plumage is replaced. In polygamous species, non-brooding males begin molting shortly after the completion of oviposition. Moulting male capercaillie and black grouse keep alone in remote areas of the forest, and male (drake) ducks accumulate on heavily overgrown lakes, sometimes tens and hundreds of kilometers from breeding sites. Females begin to molt later, when the chicks are already older; their molting period overlaps with the end of the breeding season. The end of reproduction and the beginning of molting in monogamous birds are also not clearly delineated in time. adults begin molting at the end of the feeding of chicks (immaturonate birds) or (in maturonate species) when the chicks grow up and become more independent. The completion of molting in some species ends only at wintering.

4. Winterization period. Wide migrations in search of food, intensive feeding. The nature of metabolism changes and there is an increased accumulation of fat. In search of food, some species visit biotopes that they do not visit at other times of the year. Ducks and geese feed on grain fields, cranes eat the remaining potatoes. Thrushes, pigeons, black grouse and other forest birds feed on the fields.

Few species of birds stock up on food during this period. Kedrovka - Nucifraga caryocatactes they peck out cedar nuts from cones and bury them in moss, hide them between stones and roots, sometimes at a distance of several kilometers from cedar forests. Part of the reserves is then used by the birds themselves, part is eaten by mouse-like rodents and insects, part of the seeds germinate. The natural renewal of the cedar goes practically only in this way. Jays store oak acorns, beech nuts, collect small potatoes in the fields adjacent to the forest and hide them in the forest. Jays search for their reserves and use them throughout the winter. Due to the germination of the surviving stocks of acorns and nuts, there is a natural renewal of oak and beech in burnt areas and clearings.

Nuthatch hide beech nuts, seeds of maple, elm, linden in cracks in the bark. Passerine and upland owls hide the corpses of mouse-like rodents in hollows and artificial nests in autumn. In one hollow sometimes there are up to 50-80 corpses. These stocks are used in winter, when the fallen snow makes it difficult to catch the animals. In these cases, the reserves are used by the same individual that hid them. Stock detection is probably aided by memory and sense of smell. In recent years, it has been found that flocks of tits (gaiters, Muscovites, crested tits) wandering in the fall, having had enough, continue to search for food and hide small seeds, juniper berries, insect pupae in bark cracks, under lichen growths on trunks and branches. These reserves are used during the period of winter starvation by other individuals of these species. Unlike mammals, among birds there are no species that would completely satisfy their need for food in winter only at the expense of reserves; nevertheless, the storage of food facilitates wintering. This period of the annual cycle ends with the movements of birds to their wintering grounds.

5. Wintering. Populations of each species are located in areas that provide them with food and protective conditions. More often in the wintering area, birds make small migrations; in some species (Anseriformes, some Passerines) diurnal movements from feeding places to resting places and back are clearly expressed. During this period, many seabirds roam widely across the ocean, looking for accumulations of food (probe-nosed, auks). The boundary between wintering and the next period of the annual cycle - preparation for reproduction - is difficult to draw: in some species, prenuptial molting begins even during wintering, pairs are forming (some ducks and geese, etc.), current phenomena begin to appear; wintering migrations gradually develop into directed migration to nesting sites.

Almost all reptiles and many mammals respond unambiguously to unfavorable seasonal changes in living conditions - a decrease in activity and falling into anabiosis. Birds are not like this. However, American nightjars Phalaenoptilus nuttallii - fall into a real hibernation, lasting 2-2.5 months: in a bird huddled in a crevice, the body temperature drops to 18-19 °, breathing and pulse slow down. Short-term torpor during sharp drops in air temperature was also noted in other nightjars, in swifts and swallows. Night torpor is characteristic of many species of hummingbirds. With these few exceptions, birds do not reduce their activity during unfavorable seasonal changes and survive them by changing their habitat and switching to available, albeit less high-calorie foods, changing their behavior (nights spent in the snow of black grouse and tits, group nights in the shelters of sparrows, pikas, etc.). ), or, flying over long distances, live under relatively favorable weather and food conditions throughout the year.

In relation to the territory of birds can be divided into three groups: 1) settled - remaining in the same area throughout the year; they can stay in their nesting area all year round or change habitats, but the length of movements usually does not exceed several tens of kilometers; 2) nomadic - making non-directional migrations hundreds of kilometers long after the breeding season, but usually not flying outside the natural zone in which they nest; 3) migratory - flying away for wintering thousands of kilometers from nesting sites, to other natural areas.

The distribution of species into these groups is complicated by the fact that populations of the same species from different parts of the range may behave differently. So, gray crows in the southern regions of the European part of our country are sedentary, in the central regions they are nomadic (some of the individuals that have already bred are sedentary), and in the northern regions they are real migratory birds. Changes in weather and food conditions over the years also affect the nature of the mobility of birds. Fieldfare thrushes are migratory birds, but during the harvest years of mountain ash and juniper in warm winters, large flocks roam in the middle lane all winter, not flying away for ordinary wintering. The sharper the seasonal changes in living conditions, the lower the total number of species found here and the more migratory among them.

Galliformes are sedentary or roam within small limits, except for the tundra populations of the white partridge, flying off to the forest zone for the winter, and migratory quails. In many regions of our country, woodpeckers, tits, many ravens, sparrows are settled, but in the northern regions they are nomadic and even migratory. Typical nomadic species include waxwings, crossbills, bullfinches, tap dances, many owls, etc. Most or all populations, approximately 600 out of 750 species found on the territory of our country, are migratory.

A relatively small number of species and individuals of Anseriformes, Grebes, Anklets, Predators, Waders, Gulls, Passerines winter in the southern regions of our country along the shores of the Black Sea, in Transcaucasia, in the south; Caspian, in some regions of Central Asia. The overwhelming majority of species and individuals of our birds winter outside the country in the British Isles and in Southern Europe, in the Mediterranean, in many parts of Africa and Asia. For example, many small birds from the European part of our country (warblers, warblers, swallows, etc.) winter in South Africa, flying from wintering places up to 9-10 thousand km. The flyways of some species are even longer. Arctic terns nesting along the coasts of the Barents Sea - Sterna paradisea winter off the coast of Australia, flying only in one direction up to 16-18 thousand km. Almost the same migration path for brown-winged plovers nesting in the tundra of Siberia - Charadrius dominica wintering in New Zealand, and in spiny swifts - Hirundapus caudacutus, from Eastern Siberia flying to Australia and Tasmania (12-14 thousand km); part of the way they fly over the sea.

During migrations birds fly at normal speeds, alternating flight with stops for rest and feeding. Autumn migrations. usually take place at a slower speed than spring ones. Small passerine birds during migrations move an average of 50-100 km per day, ducks - 100-500 km, etc. Thus, on average, birds spend relatively little time on the flight per day, sometimes only 1-2 hours However, some even small ground birds, such as American tree warblers - Dendroica, migrating over the ocean, they are able to fly 3-4 thousand km without stopping in 60-70 hours of continuous flight. But such strenuous migrations have been identified only in a small number of species.

Flight altitude depends on many factors: bird species and flight capabilities, weather, air flow speeds at different heights ... etc. Observations from aircraft and radar showed that most species migrate at an altitude of 450-750 m, some flocks can fly very low above the ground. Migratory cranes, geese, waders, and pigeons were noted much less frequently at altitudes up to 1.5 km and above. In the mountains, flocks of flying waders, geese, cranes were observed even at an altitude of 6-9 km above sea level (at the 9th kilometer, the oxygen content is 70% less than at sea level). Water birds (loons, grebes, auks) swim part of the flyway, and the corncrake passes on foot. Many species of birds, usually active only during the daytime, migrate at night and feed during the day (many passerines, waders, etc.), while others retain their usual daily rhythm of activity during the migration period.

In migratory birds in preparation period for migration the nature of metabolism changes, leading to the accumulation of significant fat reserves with enhanced nutrition. When oxidized, fats release almost twice as much energy as carbohydrates and proteins. Reserve fat, as needed, enters the bloodstream and is delivered to working muscles. When fats are oxidized, water is formed, which compensates for the loss of moisture during breathing. Particularly large reserves of fat are in species that are forced to fly non-stop during migration for a long time. In the already mentioned American tree warblers before flying over the sea, fat reserves can be up to 30-35% of their mass. After such a "throw" the birds intensively feed, restoring their energy reserves, and again continue their flight.

The change in the nature of metabolism, which prepares the body for a flight or for wintering conditions, is provided by a combination of the internal annual rhythm of physiological processes and seasonal changes in living conditions, primarily by a change in the length of daylight hours (lengthening in spring and shortening in late summer); probably, seasonal changes in feed also play a role. In birds that have accumulated energy resources, under the influence of external stimuli (changes in the length of the day, weather, lack of food), the so-called "migratory anxiety" occurs, when the bird's behavior changes dramatically and a desire to migrate arises.

The vast majority of nomadic and migratory birds have a distinct nesting conservatism. It manifests itself in the fact that the next year breeding birds return from wintering to the place of the previous nesting and either occupy the old nest or build a new one nearby. Young birds that have reached sexual maturity return to their homeland, but more often they settle at some distance (hundreds of meters - tens of kilometers) from the place where they hatched. Nesting conservatism, which is less pronounced in young birds, allows the species to populate new territories suitable for it and, providing mixing of the population, prevents inbreeding (closely related crossing). The nesting conservatism of adult birds allows them to nest in a well-known area, which makes it easier to search for food and escape from enemies. There is also the constancy of wintering places.

How birds navigate during migrations, how they choose the direction of flight, getting to a certain area for wintering and returning thousands of kilometers to the nesting site? Despite various studies, there is no answer to this question yet. Obviously, migratory birds have an innate migratory instinct that allows them to choose the desired general direction of migration. However, this innate instinct under the influence of environmental conditions, apparently, can change rapidly. Eggs of settled English mallards have been incubated in Finland. Growing young mallards, like local ducks, flew away for wintering in autumn, and next spring a significant part of them (36 out of 66) returned to Finland in the release area and nested there. None of these birds have been found in England. Black goose are migratory. Their eggs were incubated in England, and in autumn the young birds behaved in a new place as sedentary birds. Thus, it is still impossible to explain both the desire for migration itself and the orientation during the flight only by innate reflexes. Experimental studies and field observations show that migrating birds are capable of celestial navigation: to choose the desired direction of flight according to the position of the sun, moon and stars. In cloudy weather or when the picture of the starry sky changed during experiments in the planetarium, the ability to orientate noticeably deteriorated.

Ability for celestial navigation suggests the existence of a "biological clock" that allows one to take into account the change in the position of celestial landmarks during the day. Experiments have shown that the sense of time in birds has an accuracy of 10-15 minutes. This is enough to choose the correct direction of flight. A number of experiments and observations suggest that birds have a "compass sense" - the ability to determine the correct direction when flying or when they are brought far from the nest; it can also manifest itself in cloudy weather, when celestial navigation is difficult. The extensive development of research allows us to hope that in the near future the mechanisms that determine the high possibilities of birds for orientation in space and their navigational abilities will be revealed.

The chosen correct general direction of flight is corrected visually, since during migration birds adhere to familiar landscapes - riverbeds, forests, etc. When flying in flocks of mixed age, orientation is facilitated by the experience of individuals who have already migrated. However, in a large number of species, young birds do not fly together with adults, but independently, earlier (many passerines, some predators, etc.) or later (many waders, some passerines) of old birds. Probably, the subsequent return to the nesting sites is facilitated by a good acquaintance with the area during post-nesting migrations, which are expressed to varying degrees in all species.

Apparently, in most birds, one or another attitude to the territory developed simultaneously with the formation of the species, since the changes of the seasons in many regions of the globe were already expressed in the Cretaceous - Tertiary periods - the time of the formation of modern groups. Intensive processes of mountain building and increased contrast of climate, several glaciations that formed in many areas of North America and Eurasia in the Quaternary, which occupied vast areas, probably increased the mobility of birds during the non-breeding period. After the retreat of the glaciers, the birds intensively populated the liberated territories. Gradually, modern wintering areas and directions of passage to them were formed. This process continues at the present time. The creation of reservoirs along the route of the Karakum Canal was accompanied by the emergence of new wintering grounds for water birds. On the other hand, the intensive economic use of many areas of southern Europe has led to the disruption of natural landscapes and to a sharp decrease in the number of birds wintering there.