How do birds show care for their offspring. How birds take care of their offspring in the wild

So, for example, a partridge, sensing danger, literally runs away from the nest, having previously rolled away the eggs from there in different directions. The bird does this whenever it is disturbed while sitting on the masonry. But then he returns to the nest, carefully collecting the eggs and not damaging any. Of course, this is a peculiar way of caring for offspring.

short-eared owl

Such a large bird as a short-eared owl has a whole family row. Having laid one egg in a safe place under a hummock, the bird waits until the chick hatches, and the later eggs begin to hatch already for a couple with him. This behavior is also characteristic of herons and storks, in which the chicks do not fledge immediately, but gradually.

Variegated three-fingered

in the bogs Far East live variegated three-fingered. Males of this species incubate eggs alone, as the spouse, having laid eggs, goes in search of another groom. The female of the three-finger changes four husbands during the summer, and each male incubates the eggs left by her, and then independently takes care of the offspring, protecting and feeding them. True, it cannot be said that this is a burden for young fathers, because they are excellent teachers and loving parents.

swift

However, there are birds that do not particularly bother worrying about the chicks. In bad weather, swifts leave their nesting sites for several days, leaving the chicks without food. But nature took care of the offspring of these birds, giving their chicks the opportunity to fall into suspended animation for several days, until the negligent parents return. Numbness does not render negative impact on the body of the chick, and after a short period of time the body of the young bird restores all its normal functions.

weed chicken

Weed chickens living on the Pacific islands do not build nests at all for future incubation of masonry. The bird simply buries its eggs in the sand warmed by the sun and this limits its family worries. Later, chicks will hatch from the eggs and immediately begin an independent life.

Cuckoo

The well-known cuckoo does not care about the future generation either. But do not judge her too harshly: the bird throws her eggs into other people's nests because she herself is not able to sit them, because she carries them one at a time and at long intervals. Mother nature has created all the conditions for all her children to grow up, grow up and bring new offspring.

Every year, in order to raise offspring, the vast majority of birds build nests. In temperate latitudes and in cold countries, nesting begins in spring and ends in summer, when the chicks are compared in size with adult birds. But this is not the case everywhere. After all, there are many places on the globe where there is no change of seasons. In some tropical countries, summer lasts all year, in other places there is an annual change of dry and rainy seasons.

How, then, to determine the time of reproduction of birds? For the entire globe, the rule is general: birds begin to nest at such a time that the feeding of the brood and the first days of the life of the chicks outside the nest fall on the most food-rich time. If we have it in spring and summer, then in the savannahs of Africa, most birds nest immediately after the start of the rains, when the vegetation develops violently and many insects appear. The exception here is birds of prey, especially those that feed on terrestrial animals. They nest only during drought. When the vegetation burns out, it is easy for them to find their prey on the ground, which has nowhere to hide. Birds nest in tropical forests throughout the year.

It is generally believed that all birds, when hatching chicks, build special nests for incubation of eggs. But this is not so: many birds nesting on the ground do without a real nest. For example, a small brownish-gray nightjar lays a couple of eggs directly on the forest floor, most often on fallen needles. A small depression is formed later, because the bird sits in the same place all the time. The circumpolar murre also does not build nests. She lays her single egg on the bare rock ledge of the bluff. Many gulls and waders need only a small depression in the sand, sometimes they use the footprint of a deer hoof.

Night-bird nightjar nests right on the ground. The whitening shell near the nest helps parents find their chicks in the dark.

Birds that raise chicks in hollows and burrows do not make a real nest. They are usually content with a small litter. In hollows, wood dust can serve as litter. In the kingfisher, the litter in the hole consists of small bones and scales of fish, in the bee-eater - from chitinous remains of insects. The woodpecker usually does not occupy the finished hollow. With his strong beak, he hollows out a new hollow for himself. The golden bee-eater for about 10 days digs with its beak in the soft clay of a cliff of one and a half and even two meters, which ends with an extension - a nesting chamber. Real nests are made by birds nesting in bushes and trees. True, not all of them are skillfully made. The dove, for example, folds several twigs on tree branches and somehow fastens them.

Thrushes build solid cup-shaped nests, and the song thrush smears it with clay from the inside. Birds, working from morning to late evening, spend about three days on the construction of such a nest. The finch arranges a warm, felt-like nest, moreover, with a soft lining, masking it from the outside with pieces of moss, fragments of lichen, and birch bark. Golden-yellow oriole hangs its nest - a skillfully woven basket - from a horizontal branch of an apple tree, birch, pine or spruce. Orioles sometimes tie the ends of two thin branches and place a nest between them.

Among the birds of our country, the most skillful nest-builder is undoubtedly the Remez. The male remez, having found a suitable flexible branch, wraps its fork with thin plant fibers - this is the basis of the nest. And then, together - a male and a female - they build a warm hanging mitten from vegetable fluff with an entrance in the form of a tube. Remez's nest is inaccessible to terrestrial predators: it hangs on thin branches, sometimes over a river or over a swamp.

In some birds, nests have a very peculiar appearance and complex structure. Living in Africa and on the island of Madagascar, the shadow heron, or hammerhead, makes a nest in the form of a ball of twigs, grass, reeds, and then closes it up with clay. The diameter of such a ball is more than a meter, and the diameter of the side tunnel, which serves as the entrance to the nest, is 20 cm. The Indian warbler-dressmaker sews a tube of one or two large woody leaves with vegetable "twine" and arranges a nest in it from reed fluff, cotton, wool.

The small salangan swift, living in Southeast Asia (and on the islands of the Malay Archipelago), builds a nest from its very sticky saliva. The layer of dried saliva is strong, but so thin that it shines through like porcelain. This nest is built for a long time - about 40 days. Birds attach it to a sheer rock, and it is very difficult to get such a nest. Salangan nests are well known in Chinese cooking under the name of swallow nests and are highly valued.

A relative of the salangana already known to us, the kleho swift attaches its small, almost flat nest to a horizontal branch only at the edge. A bird cannot sit on such a nest: it will break off. Therefore, the kleho incubates the egg, sitting on a branch, and only leans on it with its chest.

Chiffchaff feeds chicks that have just flown out of the nest.

The South American stove-bird builds its nest almost exclusively from clay. It has a spherical shape with a side entrance and really resembles the ovens of the local Indians. It is not uncommon for the same pair of birds to use a nest for several years. And many birds of prey have 2-3 nests, using them alternately. There are also species of birds in which several pairs make a common nest. Such, for example, are African weavers. However, in this common nest under one roof, each pair has its own nesting chamber and, in addition, there are also sleeping chambers for males. Sometimes uninvited "guests" appear in the common nest. For example, one of the chambers in the nest of weavers can be occupied by a pink parrot.

There are many species of birds in which nests are grouped very closely, in colonies. One species of American swallows builds clay bottle-shaped nests on cliffs, which are so closely molded to each other that from a distance they look like honeycombs. But more often the nests in the colony are separated from each other by a meter or more.

Remez's nest is built very skillfully.

Bird colonies in the north are huge - hundreds of thousands of pairs. These so-called bird colonies are inhabited mainly by guillemots. Small colonies are also formed by gulls and petrels nesting on the ground. On the islands along the west coast South America cormorants, pelicans and boobies nest in colonies. Their nests have accumulated so much droppings over the centuries that it is developed and used as a valuable fertilizer (guano).

Large colonies are usually nested by those birds whose food is located near the nesting site, and, moreover, in large numbers. Cormorants on the islands of South America feed on, for example, large schools of anchovies, three-toed gulls with bird colonies Barents Sea without special work get capelin. But often birds nest in colonies and fly far for food. Such birds are usually good flyers - these are swallows, swifts. Scattering in all directions, they do not interfere with each other to get food.

The forest horse arranges a real nest in the grass from dry blades of grass.

Those birds that do not have good flying abilities, and collect food by midge, by grain, nest far from each other, since when nesting in colonies they will not be able to collect enough food. These species of birds have feeding or nesting areas near their nests, where they do not allow competitors. The distance between the nests of these birds is 50-100 m. It is interesting that usually migratory birds return in the spring to their last year's nesting site.

All these features of bird biology should be well remembered when hanging artificial nests. If the bird is colonial, like a starling, nesting boxes (birdhouses) can be hung often, several on one tree. But this is not at all suitable for a great tit or a pied flycatcher. It is necessary that within each nesting site of tits there should be only one nest.

Chicks hatch in the nest of the redwing thrush. They are helpless for a long time, as in all nestling bird species, and fledge just before leaving the nest.

Some birds of prey, including owls, do not build nests at all, but capture ready-made strangers and behave in them like at home. A small falcon takes away nests from a rook or a raven; The saker falcon often settles in the nest of a crow or a heron.

Sometimes the nesting site is very unusual. Some small tropical birds hollow out caves for their nests in the nests of social wasps or even in termite mounds. A small loten nectary, living in Ceylon, looks for a network of a social spider in the bushes, squeezes out a depression in its densest part, makes a small lining, and the nest for her 2-3 testicles is ready.

Our sparrows often breed chicks in the walls of the nests of other, larger birds, such as a stork or a kite. Skillfully diving grebe (crested grebe) arranges a nest on the water. Sometimes its nest is fortified at the bottom of a shallow reservoir and rises as a small island, but more often it floats on the surface of the water. Surrounded by water and a coot's nest. This bird arranges even a gangway - on them the chicks can go down to the water and return to the nest. Small jacanas sometimes nest on the floating leaves of tropical aquatic plants.

Some birds make nests in human buildings. Sparrows - on the cornices and behind the window frames. Swallows nest at windows, jackdaws nest in chimneys, redstarts nest under canopies, etc. There was a case when a heater made a nest in the wing of an airplane while it was at the airfield. In Altai, a wagtail nest was found, twisted in the bow of a ferry boat. It “floated” every day from one shore to another.

Hornbills live in the tropics of Africa and South Asia. At the beginning of nesting, rhinos - male and female - choose a hollow suitable for the nest and cover up the hole. When there is a gap through which the bird can barely squeeze through, the female climbs into the hollow and already from the inside reduces the inlet so that she can only stick her beak into it. The female then lays her eggs and begins incubation. She receives food outside from the male. When the chicks hatch and grow up, the bird breaks the wall from the inside, flies out and begins to help the male get food for the growing brood. The chicks remaining in the nest restore the wall destroyed by the female and again reduce the hole. This nesting method is a good protection against snakes and predatory animals climbing trees.

No less interesting is the nesting of the so-called weed chickens, or big-footed ones. These birds live on the islands between South Asia and Australia, as well as in Australia itself. Some weed hens place their eggs in warm volcanic soil and don't take care of them anymore. Others rake up a large pile of decaying leaves mixed with sand. When the temperature inside the heap rises sufficiently, the birds tear it open, the female lays eggs inside the heap and leaves. The male restores the pile and stays near it. It does not incubate, but only monitors the temperature of the heap. If the heap cools down, it enlarges it; if it heats up, it breaks it. By the time the chicks hatch, the male also leaves the nest. Chicks start life on their own. True, they emerge from the egg with already growing plumage, and by the end of the first day they can even fly up.

In Great Grebe, as in all brood species of birds, chicks become independent very early. They have long been able to swim, but sometimes rest on the back of an adult bird.

When building a nest, not all birds have a male and a female working the same way. Males of some species arrive from wintering earlier than females and immediately start building. In some species, the male completes it, in others, the female completes the construction, or they build together. There are species of birds in which the male only carries construction material, and puts it in right order female. In goldfinches, for example, the male is limited to the role of an observer. In ducks, as a rule, only females build a nest, drakes do not show any interest in this.

Some birds (petrels, guillemots) lay only one egg each and nest once per summer. Small songbirds usually lay 4 to 6 eggs, and the great tit - up to 15. Many eggs are laid by birds from the hen order. The gray partridge, for example, lays 18 to 22 eggs. If for some reason the first clutch fails, the female lays another, additional one. For many songbirds, 2 or even 3 clutches per summer is normal. In the Thrush warbler, for example, the first chicks have not yet had time to fly out of the nest, when the female starts building a new nest, and the male alone feeds the first brood. In the water moorhen, the chicks of the first brood help their parents feed the chicks of the second brood.

In many species of owls, the number of eggs in a clutch and even the number of clutches varies depending on the abundance of food. Skuas, gulls, snowy owls do not hatch chicks at all if there is very little food. Crossbills feed on spruce seeds, and during the harvest years of spruce cones they nest in the Moscow region in December - January, not paying attention to frosts of 20-30 °.

Many birds begin incubation after the entire clutch has been laid. But among owls, harriers, cormorants, and thrushes, the female sits on the first laid egg. The chicks of these bird species are hatched gradually. For example, in the nest of a harrier, the eldest chick can weigh 340 g, and the youngest - the third one - only 128 g. The age difference between them can reach 8 days. Often the last chick dies due to lack of food.

As a rule, most often the female incubates the eggs. In some birds, the male replaces the female from time to time. In a few species of birds, for example, in the phalarope, painted snipe, three-fingered, only the male incubates the eggs, and the female does not show any concern for the offspring. It happens that males feed incubating females (many warblers, hornbill), in other cases, females still leave the nest and leave eggs for a while. Females of some species go hungry during incubation. For example, a female common eider does not leave the nest for 28 days. By the end of incubation, she becomes very thin, losing almost 2/3 of her weight. The female emu can starve during incubation without much harm to herself for up to 60 days.

In many passerine birds, as well as woodpeckers, kingfishers, storks, chicks are born blind, naked and helpless for a long time. Parents put food in their beaks. These birds are called chicks. As a rule, their chicks fledge in the nest and fly only after leaving the nest. Chicks of waders, ducks, gulls emerge from eggs sighted and covered with down. Having dried a little, they leave the nest and are able not only to move independently, but also to find food without the help of their parents. These birds are called brood. Their chicks grow and fledge outside the nest.

It rarely happens that an incubating bird, or especially a bird at the brood, tries to hide unnoticed at the moment of danger. large birds, protecting their brood, attack the enemy. A swan can even break a person's arm with a blow of its wing.

More often, however, the birds "take away" the enemy. At first glance, it seems that the bird, saving the brood, deliberately distracts the attention of the enemy and pretends to be lame or shot. But in fact, the bird at this moment has two opposite aspirations-reflexes: the desire to run and the desire to pounce on the enemy. The combination of these reflexes creates the complex behavior of the bird, which seems conscious to the observer.

When the chicks have hatched from the eggs, the parents begin to feed them. During this period, only one female walks with black grouse, capercaillie and ducks with a brood. The male does not care about the offspring. Only the female incubates at the white partridge, but both parents walk with the brood and “take away” the enemy from it. However, in brood birds, parents only protect the chicks and teach them to find food. The situation is more complicated in chicks. As a rule, both parents feed here, but often one of them is more energetic and the other is lazier. So, in a large spotted woodpecker, the female usually brings food every five minutes and manages to feed the chicks three times until the male arrives with food. And in the black woodpecker, the chicks are fed mainly by the male.

In the sparrowhawk, only the male hunts. He brings prey to the female, who is inseparably at the nest. The female tears the prey into pieces and gives them to the chicks. But if the female died for some reason, the male will put the brought prey on the edge of the nest, and in the meantime the chicks will die of starvation.

Large birds cormorants usually feed chicks 2 times. per day, herons - 3 times, albatrosses - 1 time, and moreover at night. Small birds feed chicks very often. great tit brings food to chicks 350-390 times a day, the killer whale - up to 500 times, and the American wren - even 600 times.

The swift sometimes flies as far as 40 km from the nest in search of food. He brings to the nest not every caught midge, but a mouthful of food. He glues the prey with saliva. a lump and, having flown to the nest, deeply sticks balls of insects into the throats of the chicks. In the first days, the swifts feed the chicks in such enhanced portions up to 34 times a day, and when the chicks grow up and are ready to fly out of the nest, only 4-6 times. While the chicks of most bird species, having flown out of the nest, still need parental care for a long time and only gradually learn to find and peck prey without the help of their parents, the chicks of the swifts feed and fly on their own. Moreover, departures from the nest, they often immediately rush to the south. Sometimes the parents are still hovering over the houses, collecting food for their chick, and he, feeling strong enough, is already heading south without even seeing his parents goodbye.

Birds protect grain from all the dangers of their babies and are ready to give their lives for them. A person will approach ducklings or black grouse, a grunt or a black grouse spins in front of his very nose, falling on the wing, like a wounded one, barely moving. A man will rush after her, it seems, is about to catch. But the mother bird will take him away from the chicks, suddenly take off, give a wide circle in the air and return to her brood so that you can’t even see her. Chemga, in a moment of danger, gathers his chemga under his wings and dives with them under the water. And the weak pigalitsa, protecting the chicks, even attacks the dog. The duck has just brought out the puffballs. And after a few hours, in a moment of danger, like fluffy balls, they jump into the water and do not lag behind it a single step.

Cautious quail. One day I landed on a country road near a village in order to replenish food supplies for further travel. A wheat field began from the forest edge. He climbed a hillock and stopped to admire how the grain field was agitated. At this time, very close to me, a reddish-brown bird jumped out of the bushes onto the road. "It must be a quail," I thought, and hid behind a birch. The bird came out into the middle of the road, looked around, and then returned to the roadside bushes. After some time, she appeared on the road, but not alone, but with a whole family of ten kids. Now, in terms of size and plumage, it was no longer difficult to recognize the smallest representative of the chicken order - Quail. Behind her, like downy lumps, the quails were hastily moving. One should have seen how the quail mother touchingly took care of the safety of her babies during this transition.

Bird Secrets. Partridge is one of the most cautious. When her family needs to cross the highway, it is done like this: first, one "mother" goes, reaches the middle of the highway, looks around and returns back for the chicks. They follow her, and "daddy" brings up the rear.

Floating taxi. Once I saw a black-throated loon on the lake. She swam towards the island. But what is it? On the back, huddled tightly against each other, sat two babies dressed in dark downy outfits. Slightly raised wings of a caring mother on the right and on the left protected the little "passengers" from falling into the water. I unexpectedly witnessed the extraordinary move of the loon family from the fishing grounds where it fished to the bird's "hotel".

Case on the Golitsin Ponds. It happened in the fall. A pair of black swans, wintering on the Golitsinsky Ponds in Moscow, began to build their nest in a house. Eggs soon appeared in the nest. In incubation, which lasted much longer than in spring, the main part was taken by the male. The female only occasionally replaced him. And the last four days the male did not leave the nest at all. Just before the appearance of the chicks, the swans changed places. Soon, a squeak began to be heard from the nest. In spring, parents usually immediately go down to the water with the swans. And then gray fluffy lumps huddled under the wings of the mother. Yes, and she herself did not dare to take them outside - it was cold, there was snow and ice all around. People came to the aid of the birds. They moved the whole family to a warm room with a pool.

Unequal fight. On the old linden already long years made a nest of storks. During the summer, they bred offspring, flew away to warmer climes for the winter, and returned in April. Everyone is used to these birds. On one of the hot days, four chicks unable to fly fell out of a high nest. One died, three survived. They spent the night in the garden under the protection of adult storks, and in the morning they were noticed by dogs. You should have seen how the parents protected the kids. They whirled in the air, flapping their wings, swooped down on the mongrels. Magpies flew to the battlefield, then swallows. There was an unimaginable noise. The storks behaved bravely and forced the dogs to run away. The village children took care of the birds and, until they learned to fly, brought them food.

Falcon-falcon. On the shores of Lake Omsha in the Novgorod region, a falcon family settled. One could spend hours watching the flights of the indefatigable feathered hunter. Sometimes he sat on a pine tree near the tent. The bird has a menacing look, a beautifully planted head, a hooked beak. The predatory appearance of the falcon misleads ignorant people, and they mistakenly consider it a feathered robber, the destroyer of small birds and chickens. Meanwhile, the falcon never attacks them. From dawn to pace, he flies over fields, meadows, lakes, catching beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers from the genus of locusts and other insects. During the day, he flies hundreds of times to the nest with prey for his children. Moreover, unlike birds of prey, the red-footed falcon brings prey not in its claws, but in its beak. Unfortunately, many do not know what benefits this bird brings to gardens, fields and forests.

Unusual "quote". Once I came to visit my relatives Upper Don. In the garden, in thick potato tops, I saw a white hen with ... guinea fowl. And, perhaps, he would not have paid attention to her if she had not suddenly ... crowed. I come closer and see a large proud rooster with a big red comb. In the distance, the already grown-up Caesars are bustling about. Finding a green caterpillar, the rooster called them to him and they rushed to the tasty prey.

In the spring, the hen brought out 20 cesareans. The babies were not even two weeks old, as the mother hen refused them. Her duties diligently began to perform a rooster. The Caesars quickly got used to it. He violently attacked anyone who tried to get close to them. In the fall, the chickens turned into adult guinea fowls, but the unusual "Quot" did not leave them.

Little sparrows. After leaving the nest, yellow-mouthed sparrows tried to learn to fly. Caring parents still fed them, but at the same time taught them to live independently. Once a crow spied: old sparrows flew away, leaving helpless chicks. Hiding among the branches of brushwood, the chicks, noticing the crow, flew to a safe place. The crow tried in every possible way to get one of them, but the sparrow dodged. Probably, feeling its impotence, the gray predator disappeared. And after a while flew in with a partner. One of them remained on top of the pile, the other, hiding below, dived under the brushwood. As soon as the frightened sparrow jumped out, a crow waiting upstairs grabbed him, and then old sparrows appeared on the roof. Feathers flew. The crow had to get out.

Big worries of a little bird. Kraczek slept badly. He was hungry. Yesterday, most of the fish caught had to be given to the chicks. They have grown up and eat more. In the morning he went to the sloping bank of the user. A small bleak fluttered in the sand. He grabbed it and ate it. Splashed on the water, escaping from the pike, other fish. Krachek rushed into the water. In a second, with a fry in its beak, it was already flying to the nest. Spouse! rose towards. The husband quickly put the fish into the mouth of the loudly screaming chick.

Flying with his wife over the nests of other terns for new prey, he loudly shouted "ke-kee-ke". Approaching the bay, they saw that many "hunters" had flown here for fry: ducks, cormorants, gulls. It was noticeable how small fish glisten in the water with silver scales. They rush from side to side, but they cannot swim away: the bay has already separated from the lake. Tern grabbed fry and returned to the nest. Holding the bleak by the head and not letting go of the beak, he let the chick grab the fish. The chick was ruffling the fish, trying to snatch the prey from the "father", who did not immediately open his beak. Finally, the chick got its share, swallowed it in one second and squealed again: yes, yes, yes!!!

Terns hunted all day, flew to the chicks with prey and flew away again. They caught bleak until late in the evening to feed two chicks. And only when the chicks fell asleep, the parents themselves ate their fill. And so they had to get food for the babies every day until they grew up enough to hunt on their own.

Now it's time for the chicks to learn to fly. Now the spouses left them alone for a long time, fed them less often. For several days in a row, spouses with fish in their beaks flew up to the chicks, but did not give up the prey. The chicks have lost a lot of weight. Finally, unable to withstand the hunger, they crawled out of the nest and, as if on a walkway, moved to a reed bush. Here the ground was damp: the water had left only recently. The babies ran, pulling their paws out of the gray odorous silt, crawling with difficulty through the thick reeds, slipping and falling. We finally reached the shore. And then they stopped in awe. Ahead stood a huge unfamiliar beast. It was a jungle cat. His paws, like pillars, blocked the way to the river for the chicks. At this time, noticing the cat, other terns shouted: "kaga, kaga!" and circled over the robber. The cat disappeared into the reeds.

The tern chicks, having escaped mortal danger, returned to their nest. Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard. The chicks raised their heads at once, opened their hungry mouths, squealed. The terns brought them a couple of mayflies. "More! More! More!" demanded the chicks. Parents watched them jump, but in vain - there was no more food. The terns quickly flew away, soon, just as unexpectedly as before, appeared above the nest with live fish. This continued until the kids got to the shore on their own, began to collect furry caterpillars and mayflies.

Mother turkey. At a resident of one village, a turkey laid eggs and sat down to breed turkeys. Noticing this, the turkey began to compete with the mother hen. As soon as the hostess took the turkey to feed, he immediately took her place. Returning, the hen ran into the turkey and drove him away. Then the offended "daddy" raked up small stones and sat on them. The mistress of the birds decided to put under the turkey 13 chicken eggs. He took it for granted. So the turkey became the father of the family, led a dozen chickens around the yard and protected them.

The hen brought out the partridges. While mowing hay, I saw that there was a nest under the scythe, there were testicles in it, and next to it was a mortally wounded partridge. I had to bring the nest home and put it under the hen. After 4 days, 11 partridges hatched. As soon as the small ones got stronger and grew up, I released the birds into the wild.

Birds have a very developed care for offspring, which manifests itself, in addition to building a nest and incubating masonry, in feeding chicks, in warming and protecting them from weather conditions, in cleaning the nest from excrement and more or less active protection from the enemy.Usually, in polygamous birds, the male does not take part in caring for the offspring. And in monogamous species, on the contrary, the male fully participates in it along with the female.Eggs are most often incubated by females, less often - by both birds from a pair, very rarely - only by males. Incubation usually begins after the laying of the last egg in the clutch, but sometimes earlier, in the middle of the laying period or after the laying of the first. eggs (gulls, shepherds, etc.). Long-legged, predatory and owls, parrots and a number of other birds begin incubation immediately after laying the first egg. In small birds, the incubation period is much shorter than in large ones; among the latter some brood longer than a month. When birds incubate, fluff falls out on parts of the abdomen and chest and a perched spot is formed, which provides more intense heating of the eggs with body heat.

Depending on the duration and complexity of embryonic development, birds are divided into two classes - brood and chicks.Brood birds (tinamu-like, ostrich-like, anseriform, chicken-like, except for hoatzin, bustards, many waders, etc.) - whose chicks hatch from the egg fully formed, covered with down and able to find food. They immediately leave the nest, although for a long time they follow their parents, who protect them and help them find food.Nestling birds (copepods, woodpeckers, swifts, parrots, some crustaceans and passerines) - whose chicks hatch from an egg unformed, naked, blind and