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How birds raise chicks. How to raise a chick

It will begin to feed on its own, caring for it will take a quarter of every hour. During daylight hours it needs it to full saturation every 20 minutes. To understand whether the chick is full is simple - having eaten, he will stop begging for food, opening his mouth.

Features of feeding singers

Particular attention should be paid to the composition of food. It is important to remember that most songbirds feed insects to their chicks. If the adopted bird is a songbird, it should be fed the same as adult insectivorous birds: fly larvae, mealworms, ant cocoons, as well as cottage cheese, carrots and chicken egg. Do not forget about mineral and vitamin supplements. You can raise chicks by feeding them with ant cocoons alone, but you will not be able to grow them on one chicken egg.

Food is conveniently served with tweezers. Already from the first feeding, it is necessary to ensure that the pet opens its beak on its own. To do this, when bringing the tweezers, you need to shake or touch the tweezers to the corners of the beak, the plumage of the head. Starting from 15 days of age, feed is scattered on the bottom of the cage. When the chick learns to peck scattered food, you can install a feeder in the cage. But with tweezers, the chick is stopped feeding only when he learns to eat up to satiety. From now on, he will need a more spacious cage in which to run.

Falcon, pygmy owl and hawk chicks should be fed slaughtered day old chicks or poultry meat.

Features of feeding finches

Chicks (greenfinch, bullfinch, goldfinch, linnet) can only be fed with the help of other finches. This is due to the fact that the food brought by the parents is mechanically processed in the beak and moistened with saliva containing enzymes. Without this, digestion in chicks is not developed.

You can raise a finches chick with a domesticated canary. To do this, you need to remove her masonry from the nest and put the newly hatched chicks there. The canary will willingly feed the chicks while they are in the nest. But after leaving it, some individuals stop feeding adopted children.

Raising owl chicks, predators, ducks, chickens is less difficult. These birds have a less intensive metabolism, and many of them are born ready to live on their own.

Chick care

Since a small pet has to be fed very often, you should always be near or carry it with you. As long as the chick is small and unable to escape, you can keep it in a small container or box. If the fledgling is only 4-5 days old from the moment it hatches, it is important to keep it warm. The easiest way to arrange it is in the form of a heating pad from a flattened plastic bottle.

Starting from 9-12 days, when the chick tends to leave the "nest", it is better to place it in a small cage. Regardless of the place of detention, the chick should have a dry soft bedding, for which moss or dried grass is suitable. If they are not at hand, you can lay cotton wool for the first time. In this case, it is important to constantly monitor that the chick does not get tangled in the fibers. You need to change the bedding as it gets dirty.

Fledglings are called chicks passerine birds at the age of 8-12 days. Chicks at this age are very restless and leave the nest at the slightest threat. Parents continue to feed chicks. Fledglings usually hide between feedings. Some birds actively defend their chicks from predators, including humans.

If you took a chick for yourself in order to feed it, you will have great worries. Keep this in mind when deciding to pick up a fledgling. After all, he will have much more chances to stay alive if you leave him to his parents. It is best to transplant the fledgling to some kind of elevation (the roof of a house, a tree branch) or just a little away from a crowded place.

From the moment guardianship begins, until the period when the chick does not feed on its own, there is nothing to think about ordinary activities, rest and long sleep. One quarter of every hour will take care of the chick. All daylight hours through every 15-20 minutes you will have to not only give the chick food, but feed it until it is full. Determining that the chick is full is simple. Fed up, he stops opening his mouth - begging for food.

Attention! Birds are very high level metabolism. A starving chick literally "burns" internal resources. It is enough to leave the chick without food for 3-6 hours (during daylight hours), and then start feeding it regularly, the chick will still die in a day or two due to metabolic disorders.

Having eaten, the chick usually begins to back away, puts its tail over the edge of the nest and becomes deficient. In nature, one of the parents usually picks up the "capsule" and eats it or carries it away from the nest. This allows not to unmask the nest with droppings. The "quality" of the capsule can be an indicator of the correct interval between feedings. If the interval is small, then a protein film-shell does not form on the litter, and the litter spreads.

Particular attention should be paid to the composition chick food. We must not forget that most songbirds, whether it be warbler, oatmeal or sparrow, feed their chicks mostly insects. This means that the adopted child should be fed the same as adult insectivorous birds: ant cocoons, mealworms, fly larvae, chicken eggs, cottage cheese, carrots, not forgetting about vitamin and mineral additives. chicks can only be grown on live ant cocoons, but it is not possible to feed them with one chicken egg or any other insect substitute.

Boiled chicken egg rubbed on a grater. I chop boiled beef or chicken meat with a knife. Greens are also chopped, such as lettuce, wood lice, dandelion leaves (but not spices!). Grate carrots on a fine grater and squeeze the juice out of it slightly (very "wet" carrots will cause stomach upset in the chick). Low-fat cottage cheese is also taken. You can have a little mild cheese, grated on a fine grater. All ingredients are mixed. Minerals are added to the mixture (calcium glycerophosphate, phytin), multivitamins (a little, an overdose is dangerous!) And grated white crackers (so that the mixture does not stick to the fingers). The mixture is made for one day and stored in the refrigerator (but not in freezer). The mixture is made into balls that are convenient for feeding (about half the size of a cherry seed).

Preparation of a nutrient mixture for a passerine fledgling.

Preparation of a nutrient mixture for a passerine fledgling.
Boiled chicken egg rubbed on a grater. I chop boiled beef or chicken meat with a knife. Greens are also chopped, such as lettuce, wood lice, dandelion leaves (but not spices!). Grate carrots on a fine grater and squeeze the juice out of it slightly (very "wet" carrots will cause stomach upset in the chick). Low-fat cottage cheese is also taken. You can have a little mild cheese, grated on a fine grater. All ingredients are mixed. Minerals are added to the mixture (calcium glycerophosphate, phytin), multivitamins (a little, an overdose is dangerous!) And grated white crackers (so that the mixture does not stick to the fingers). The mixture is made for one day and stored in the refrigerator (but not in the freezer). The mixture is made into balls that are convenient for feeding (about half the size of a cherry seed).

Don't forget to water the chick. It is best to use a pipette for this. Drink optimally during feeding. After each "ball" of food - 1-2 drops from a pipette. It is enough to put a pipette to the tip of the beak, without even opening it. You should drink only water, you can boil it (milk, tea, decoctions, wine and juices - not for birds).

Since you have to feed the chick very often, you need to constantly be near him or carry him with you. As long as the chick is small and does not try to run away, it can be kept in any small box. If you had to start raising a fledgling chick at the age of 4-5 days, then for the first two or three days it will need to be heated. It is easiest to arrange it in the form of a heating pad from a flat bottle. chicks more younger age feed, as a rule, fails.

Starting from 8-12 days of age, the chick has a desire to leave the "nest", and from that time it has to be placed in a small cell. Regardless of where the chick is kept, he needs soft, dry bedding. For her, it is better to use dried grass or moss. If at first there is neither one nor the other at hand, you can use cotton wool. However, in this case, it is necessary to constantly ensure that it is well pressed down and the chick cannot get tangled in it or swallow its fibers. The bedding is changed as it gets dirty.

It is convenient to give food with tweezers. From the very first feeding, you need to ensure that the chick opens its mouth on its own. To do this, bringing the tweezers, slightly shake the "nest" or touch the tweezers to the plumage of the head, the corners of the beak. Sometimes a light click on the beak helps. The younger the chicks, the easier it is for them to develop a begging reaction to the approaching tweezers, since with age, a hiding reaction appears on unfamiliar objects, and then flight. If it is not possible to evoke the reaction of begging for food by numerous methods, then the first feeding is carried out by force, opening the beak with the hands, and then they again begin to ensure that the chick opens its mouth. Once, having started to open its mouth at the approach of tweezers with food, then the chick will already willingly beg for food from it until it learns to feed on its own. In order to quickly accustom the chick to independence, starting from 15-17 days of age, food is placed in the cage, scattering it on the floor. After the chick begins to peck from the floor, the food is placed in the feeder. However, they stop feeding the chick with tweezers only when he learns to eat his fill. From now on, he must be provided with a more spacious cage in which to run and fly.

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. On these so-called bird colonies live mainly 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, for example, on large schools of anchovies, three-toed gulls from the bird colonies of the 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 the building material, but 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 away 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.

Most often there is a desire or need to raise songbird chicks. But these are chicks with the so-called chick type of development, which hatch from eggs naked or covered with rare fluff, blind, unable to feed on their own. In open-nesting species, short stumps of feathers on the body appear from under the skin only on the second or third day of life, the eyes open on the fourth day. In hollow nests, these events occur a day or two later. At the same time, the pace of development is rapidly increasing every day, and already on the eighth day of life, the chicks of some ground-nesting birds, such as, for example, the dubrovnik, and on the twelfth day, the chicks of the hawk nesting in the crowns of the bushes can leave the nest. The entire period of the chicks' stay in the nest, and even two or three weeks after leaving it, the parents tirelessly search for and bring to the children more and more new portions of food. Therefore, before undertaking such a thing as feeding songbirds, one should be aware that he will have to devote at least 15-20 days of his life.

From the moment guardianship begins, until the period when the chick begins to feed on its own, there is nothing to think about ordinary activities, rest and long sleep. One quarter of every hour will take care of the chick. All daylight hours every 15-20 minutes you will have to not only give the chick food, but feed it until it is full. Determining that the chick is full is simple. Fed up, he stops opening his mouth - begging for food.

Particular attention will have to be paid to the composition of chick food. We must not forget that most songbirds, whether it be warbler, oatmeal or sparrow, feed their chicks mainly with insects. This means that the adopted child should be fed the same as adult insectivorous birds: ant cocoons, mealworms, fly larvae, chicken eggs, cottage cheese, carrots, not forgetting about vitamin and mineral supplements. Chicks can only be raised on live ant cocoons, but it is not possible to feed them with one chicken egg or other insect substitutes.

Since you have to feed the chick very often, you need to constantly be near him or carry him with you. As long as the chick is small and does not try to run away, it can be kept in any small box. If you had to start raising a fledgling chick at the age of 4-5 days, then for the first two or three days it will need to be heated. It is easiest to arrange it in the form of a heating pad from a flat bottle. As a rule, it is not possible to feed younger chicks.

Starting from 8-12 days of age, the chick has a desire to leave the "nest", and from that time it has to be placed in a small cell. Regardless of where the chick is kept, he needs soft, dry bedding. For her, it is better to use dried grass or moss. If at first there is neither one nor the other at hand, you can use cotton wool. However, in this case, it is necessary to constantly ensure that it is well pressed down, and the chick could not get tangled in it or swallow its fibers. The bedding is changed as it gets dirty.

It is convenient to give food with tweezers. From the very first feeding, you need to ensure that the chick opens its mouth on its own. To do this, bringing the tweezers, slightly shake the "nest" or touch the tweezers to the plumage of the head, the corners of the beak. The younger the chicks, the easier it is for them to develop a begging reaction to the approaching tweezers, since with age, a hiding reaction appears on unfamiliar objects, and then flight. If it is not possible to evoke the reaction of begging for food by numerous methods, then the first feeding is carried out by force, opening the beak with the hands, and then they again begin to ensure that the chick opens its mouth. Once, having started to open its mouth at the approach of tweezers with food, then the chick will already willingly beg for food from it until it learns to feed on its own. In order to quickly accustom the chick to independence, starting from 15-17 days of age, food is placed in the cage, scattering it on the floor. After the chick begins to peck from the floor, the food is placed in the feeder. However, they stop feeding the chick with tweezers only when he learns to eat his fill. From now on, he must be provided with a more spacious cage, and in which he can run and fly.

Small chicks, covered only with tubes of growing feathers, should have a nest in the cage or a simple semblance of dry grass and moss, laid in a corner so that the chick can sit in it. In a cage, the nest quickly gets dirty, so it is replaced with a new one no less than one or two days later.

The finches, the linnet, the bullfinch, the greenfinch, the goldfinch (except for the chaffinch and the brambling), present a particular difficulty in rearing. Their chicks can only be fed with the help of adults, also finches. The food brought to the chicks by finches is not only mechanically processed in the beak, but also moistened with saliva containing saliva containing enzymes, without which digestion is not developed in chicks. However, wild finches often refuse to feed their young after being caged.

When raising finches chicks, it is a great relief that a domesticated, easily breeding canary in captivity belongs to the same systematic group and can be used to feed any wild finches. To do this, the clutch is taken out of the canary's nest, and in return they lay eggs or small, recently hatched chicks of the desired species. While the chicks are in the nest, the canary always feeds them willingly, but after leaving the nest, some individuals stop feeding the adopted fledglings, possibly due to the fact that their calling cry differs from the cry of the canary chicks.

Raising other chicks such as ducks, raptors, owls, chickens or shepherds is less difficult. These are birds with a less intensive metabolism; many of them are born almost ready for independent life. Therefore, care for their feeding is reduced mainly to providing them with quality food. So, a feature of feeding birds of prey is the mandatory addition of live food to the main diet. Usually they are given mice or voles. Feeding the chicks by hand is not difficult as it can only be done a few times a day. The chicks of hawks, falcons and pygmy owls need to be fed poultry meat or slaughtered day old chicks.

As well as chicks with nestling type of development, most brood and semi-brood birds in the first years of life need additional heating, cleanliness and dryness of the nest or litter. The little chicks of all chicken birds are especially afraid of even a short-term wetting. Unlike chicks, some broods can be fed in captivity from birth.

The main difficulty in raising ducklings is getting wet and cooling the chicks that have fallen into the water. This happens because, under natural conditions, the mother duck always lubricates their fluff with her fatty grease - the secretion of the coccygeal gland. In ducklings, it begins to function at an older age.

Newborn owls, predators and gulls, being in the nest, in the first days of life receive pieces of food from the mouth or from the esophagus of their parents, moistened with digestive enzymes, without which they cannot digest. Therefore, they can independently digest animal food only from 5-10 days of age.

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 is birds of prey here, 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.

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

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

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. Cormorants, pelicans and gannets nest in colonies on islands along the western coast of South America. 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, for example, at the expense of large schools of anchovies, three-toed gulls from the bird colonies of the Barents Sea catch capelin without much difficulty. 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 migratory birds usually return in the spring to their last year's nesting site.

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.

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 the building material, and the female puts it in the right order. 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.

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.

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. The great tit brings food to the chicks 350-390 times a day, the killer whale - up to 500 times, and the American wren - even 600 times.

There are many different types of birds on our planet. In spring and summer, they always have a lot of trouble with arranging a nest and breeding offspring. There are also birds that bring their chicks out into the bitter cold. Crossbills belong to this category of birds and breed their chicks in extreme weather conditions. What are these birds and why are they such selfless parents?

The bird belongs to the order of passerines of the genus of crossbills of the coworker family. Crossbill listed in the Red Book of Moscow, because it belongs to the second category of rarity. The bird is slightly larger than a sparrow and is very unusual, its average weight is 50 grams, and its body length is 17 cm. She lives only in coniferous forests and is unique in that she breeds her chicks in winter.

Females have gray-green plumage, and yellow spots on the edges of the wings. The males look even more attractive, they are real dandies. They have a crimson upper body with a gray shirt-front. Outwardly, the bird stands out not for its plumage, but for its beak. It has a peculiar structure, because their beak is very similar to the beak of a parrot. It is very powerful, and its beak and mandible are crossed, sharp ends protrude on the sides. The strong beak allows them to easily break:

cones;
spruce bark;
branches.

The bird climbs trees and feeds on the seeds of spruces and other conifers. The peculiarity of the structure of the beak helps to produce seeds for the spruce crossbill in coniferous plantations. This food is their favorite and main food, but they also eat other foods:

seeds of other plants;
insects.

Lifestyle

Klesta can be called noisy and rather mobile diurnal bird. Using an undulating flight path, it quickly flies from place to place. Songbirds call to each other when flying in flocks. They make characteristic sounds "kep-kep-kep".

Not all birds fly to warmer climes for the winter. Many remain to winter in a permanent place. They remain because it is possible to eat other food besides midges. Bugs remain under fallen leaves, suitable food is found in the pods of plants, as well as grains in cones. Such food helps them survive the winter, remaining in their familiar places. The crossbill bird can be called a permanent resident. The bird not only a peculiar beak, but also tenacious paws. Birds find cones by picking out grains from there.

It often happens that birds leave the territory where the cones have already run out and fly to another forest in search of food. Many people know that coniferous trees produce a crop 1 time in 4-5 years. Cones ripen only by the end of summer and by winter they are already brittle and dry. When heat comes, the cones open and the seeds fall to the ground, after which they give new shoots of coniferous trees. This time of the year is the most pleasant for crossbills, as they have an abundance of food.

Crossbills and offspring

The main food for crossbills are the cones of coniferous plantations, mainly spruce and pine. The most abundant period for harvesting cones is considered to be at the beginning of winter. This explains why crossbills give offspring in winter. Birds are confident in the abundance of food and are not afraid that the chicks will remain hungry. Parents also need strength not only to bring offspring, but also to grow them strong.

There are almost no birds at this time of the year, and squirrels sleep almost all the time in their hollows, so crossbills have the opportunity to eat as much as you want. During this period, the birds begin to build nests, because they believe that the most favorable time has come.

The nest is chosen by the female in the densest spruce trees. When snow covers the dense branches of fir trees, the female can reliably shelter the nest from piercing winds and cold weather in such a secluded place. Caring parents use the most thermally insulating material to build a nest:

feathers;
lichen;
animal fur.

As a result, the finished nest looks very reliable, warm and cozy. In addition to the warm nest, there is also the warmth of the mother, she carefully warms her offspring with herself. When the chicks are born, they have a normal beak. This allows parents to feed them crushed nuts by stuffing the nut porridge into the baby's mouth. After the chicks are 2 months old, their beaks begin to curl. Young animals begin to gradually learn to get food on their own, pecking it out of the cones. They still have a lot of food around and it remains only to get it out of the shell.

The period from February to March for crossbills is considered best time because of the abundance of food. They usually start laying eggs at this time, but it happens that in the month of January. Birds like to settle mainly in the coldest regions. In winter, in such an area, the temperature can drop to -35 o C. Birds are not afraid of burning cold and they make nests, despite severe frosts.

The first heralds of spring in central Russia are rooks. No wonder they say about them that they "bring spring on their wings." Usually they arrive by March 17, after them - by March 22 - starlings and larks. There is still snow in the fields, and only the thawed patches will turn black along the hillocks and slopes, when on a warm sunny day the familiar song of the field lark will pour from the sky. Starlings greet the return of spring on the streets of cities and villages. They sing with a click of yellowish beaks, and they are played in the sun, casting purple, blue and green brilliance. The starling usually sings, sitting somewhere higher, like the blackbird. The plumage of these birds is equally dark, and many confuse them. But the starling's tail is rather short, and when the bird is sitting, it is lowered; The blackbird's tail is long and usually sticks out. In addition, the male thrush has an unusually beautiful fiery yellow beak, and the starling has an ivory-colored beak with a slight touch of yellowness. Blackbird songs are surprisingly melodic. They say that in the forest you can not hear the playing of a more skillful flutist. It is often mistaken for a song thrush. But if you hear this singing in the deciduous groves, along the valleys of the streams, and in recent years in the cities, you can be sure: the blackbird sings, not the songbird. The song thrush is an inhabitant of dense spruce forests and visits cities only on the days of spring and autumn flights. In the warm spring, when "transparent forests seem to turn green like fluff", the nightingale begins to sing and the disturbing "cuckoo" - the song of the cuckoo - is carried through the forest. Spring songs, whether they are March croaks of crows, drumming of woodpeckers, chuffing of black grouse, laughter and screeching of eagle owls, chimes of tits or May nightingale trills, "crying" of orioles, chirping of swallows, are always associated with the onset of the pre-nuptial period. Each male sings his characteristic song, announcing that his nesting territory is occupied. When the male sings, he seems to be saying: "I live here, and there is nothing else to do here!" The song serves as calling card by which birds of the same species distinguish their fellows from strangers. Each male sings a special tune, so it's clear to the neighbors who they're dealing with. The territory protected by singing will belong not only to the singer himself. Soon it will become the residence of his entire family. Therefore, birdsong has another purpose: a ringing serenade should attract the female, promising her a safe place to nest.

The mating season is usually in the spring and early summer. At this time, many birds change their appearance: males put on colorful outfits, they grow collars, crests, crests, multi-colored warts appear on their heads, as, for example, in turukhtans. The brightest clothes are in males who do not raise offspring.

Each bird species has a strictly defined courtship ritual (it is called courtship). The most interesting mating is in species whose males do not incubate eggs and do not raise chicks. For example, male turukhtans in nuptial attire with brightly colored ears and collars hold peculiar tournaments on leks. They fluff their feathers, take bizarre poses, pounce on each other, however, without causing noticeable damage to rivals. This bright arena attracts females. Here they choose suitors, mate and then leave the mating place. Black grouse, capercaillie, white partridges are on display. Black grouse-roosters with blood-red swollen eyebrows walk slowly, legs wide apart, dragging their wings and lifting their lyre-shaped tail. Roosters mutter loudly, kick shots with their feet, scatter, bounce, peck each other, beat their wings. Passions boil, eyes flash from under bright red eyebrows. And capercaillie during mating even stall for a while, for which they got their name.

An unusual sight is the mating dance of cranes, in which married couples, as a rule, are inseparable. Dancing groups of two - four or four - eight birds victoriously trumpet, jump, flap their wings, squat, bow, bend their necks. Some birds arrange mating games in the air. Magpies fly high, and then fall, drawing all sorts of loops or rolling down a black and white wheel. Even crows lek in March: they excitedly fly one after another, somersault in the air, and then, perched on trees, twitch their wings and croak in a nasal voice.

In February - March, when the first breath of spring is barely felt, mating games of owls and eagle owls begin under the cover of night. In those forests where the eagle owl can have rivals, he tragically laughs, squeals and clicks his beak, scaring the lone random traveler to death. During the mating of blackbirds, future partners at first, as if playing, chase each other. Soon the female sits down, and the male pretends to want to attack. Then he starts courting. Spreading his tail like a fan, ruffling the feathers on his chest, with slightly hanging, trembling wings and an outstretched neck, he importantly walks around his chosen one and barely audibly clicks. The bride is initially reserved. It seems that she does not pay attention to the boyfriend. But soon she agrees to mate with a coquettishly submissive pose. From that moment on, the couple seemed to be engaged.

As soon as the couple has "ripened", in the territory already occupied by the male, she is looking for a place to build a nest. Bird houses are different. We most often see rooks, as in the painting by A. K. Savrasov "The Rooks Have Arrived". Many nests are erected on one tree close to each other, and a rook sitting in a nest can sometimes reach its neighbor with its beak. Rooks build nests from branches, line them with dry grass and use them for more than one year, repairing them every season. If there are only one or two nests on the tree, then there is a forty plot. A nest of magpies is a huge translucent ball. From the ground they mold internal basis- durable bowl The recessed part of the nest is called the tray. His magpies are lined with rags. In the spring, when construction begins, magpies develop a passion for shiny metal: tin corks, forks, pieces of wire. For this feature, forty were nicknamed thieves. Their openwork structures are quite durable: they can withstand countless rains, snowfalls and winds for years.

The nests of all songbirds are shaped like an open bowl. Of course, each species has its own special preferences, which are manifested in the choice of building materials, lining and nest sizes. The wagtail's nest looks like a disheveled heap of leaves, stems, roots and moss. The deep tray is lined with hair and down. The chaffinch has a neater nest. This is a deep bowl with dense walls made of moss, lichen, grass stalks and a tray covered with a layer of fluff, feathers and hair, which is lined with lichen or pieces of bark on the outside. Some songbirds build nests that are closed at the top. The wren's spherical nest - it seems too big for birds whose weight does not exceed 10 g - is twisted from leaves, branches, straw and moss. Letok - the entrance to the nest - is located on the side. City swallows build nests in the form of a hemisphere with a small entrance open at the very top made of clay and mud glued with saliva on the walls of houses under roofs. Swift salagany as building material for nests, they use the secretions of their sublingual salivary glands. These "swallow nests" are used to make soup - an expensive delicacy in Chinese and Indonesian cuisine.

Many birds nest in hollows. Woodpeckers hollow them out for themselves, and tits, nuthatches and starlings look for free hollows or populate birdhouses. Some birds do not build nests at all. In lapwings, both parents incubate chicks in damp meadows. The male digs a small depression in the ground with his paws and lightly lines it with grass stalks. The nest is ready!

Some owls and other birds nesting on the ground do not build bulky nests: such structures would be too conspicuous in open spaces. They lay their eggs in holes or crevices. Eggs are laid right on the ledges of rocks, whose colonies inhabit the northern islands and coasts. In bird markets, guillemots, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, puffins sit so close to each other that a living carpet is formed. Why do birds build nests? For one reason: they lay eggs in them, which they then warm with the heat of their bodies. The nest protects and protects the eggs from hypothermia. Many birds insulate the bottom of the tray with dry blades of grass, moss, the hair of molting animals, and their feathers. It is very warm for the eggs in the nests of the eider, they are not afraid of the northern cold. Birds pluck the fluff from their abdomen and line the nest with it so that the eggs are buried in it. Later, when the chicks leave the nest, this fluff is collected by people. In each nest, you can collect 18-20 g of a very valuable insulation, which is used when sewing warm and light clothes for polar explorers and climbers.

Whatever the nest, the female will lay as many eggs in it as she is “appropriate” by nature. The female blackbird lays one bluish-green egg with reddish-brown specks within five to six days, so that usually there are from four to five, or even seven eggs in her clutch.

Outside, the egg is protected by a lime shell. Through its pores, oxygen enters the embryo from the air. From the inside, it is lined with a shell. More precisely, there are two shells in the egg, at its blunt end they form an air chamber. It is clearly visible in a hard-boiled egg. As the egg incubates, as the water evaporates from the egg and the embryo consumes nutrients, the air chamber gradually increases. Therefore, if you put a hatched egg in a pot of water, it will float, while a fresh one will sink to the bottom. Inside the egg is filled with protein, in which the yolk floats. Its position is fixed by protein flagella, which are woven into cords - chalase. If the egg is fertilized, then a red dot is formed on the yolk - the embryonic disk. A chick develops from it.

The variety of shapes, sizes and colors of eggs is endless. Grebe (large grebe) lays elongated yellowish eggs, while owls lay almost round white ones. In lapwing and other birds that live in humid places, the eggs are pointed on one side, and in the forest pigeon, the wood pigeon (wood dove), nesting in trees or shrubs, is almost round on both sides. And yet most often the egg has one end rounded and the other pointed. This narrowing is especially noticeable in the eggs of various auks, such as guillemots. They nest on narrow ledges and rock ledges, and the conical shape of the egg prevents it from rolling into the sea. Birds of the same size can have eggs of different sizes. And the common gull, and dove weigh about 350 g. A seagull egg (35 g) weighs twice as much as a pigeon egg (17 g). The pigeon chick hatches helpless, naked and blind, just like the chicks of chicks nesting on trees - sparrows, woodpeckers, cuckoos, tits. Seagull chicks emerge sighted from the egg and begin to run almost immediately. Since the gull's egg is large and it incubates it for a long time (26 - 29 days), the embryo goes through more stages of development in it than the embryos of the dove and other chicks that lay small eggs.

Bird eggs are also colored differently. Pigeons, owls, and many birds that lay them in closed nests, hollows, and burrows have white shells. Songbirds that make open nests have a mottled shell. The eggs of the lapwing, gull, and most ground-nesting birds are camouflaged.

The number of eggs in a clutch is a species trait. The slender-billed murre and razorbill lay one egg each, pigeons two, gulls two or three. The open nests of thrushes and most songbirds contain four to six eggs. Tits and other birds nesting in hollows lay 7 to 12 eggs. And the gray partridge brings up to 20, sometimes up to 25 eggs. The number of eggs in a clutch is determined by how large the natural loss of eggs and chicks is and how many chicks the parents are able to feed. Therefore, guillemots that breed on the barren rocky steep cliffs of the sea coasts, while in incredible crowding - up to 15 pairs nest per 1 sq.m, lay only one egg each.

At first, pigeons feed their chicks by belching the so-called "pigeon milk", which is formed in their goiter by the end of incubation. It is barely enough for only two chicks. Seagulls know how to stand up for their offspring, so they do not need to start numerous juveniles. But many dangers lie in wait for thrush chicks living in an open nest, and thrushes have as many chicks as they are able to feed in the shortest possible time. The offspring of tits are reliably protected in hollows, so they have more chicks than the inhabitants of open nests. The gray partridge hatches chicks on the ground, where enemies lie in wait for them at every step. To insure against possible losses, she lays many eggs.

Having finished laying, the female begins to incubate the eggs. She settles comfortably in the nest, so as to completely cover them and warm them with the heat of her body. Before the start of incubation, fluff and feathers fall out on her chest, which is why the so-called brood spots are formed - bare skin, due to which heat is transferred to the eggs. The temperature of perched spots is higher than the body temperature of the bird. In order for the eggs to be heated from all sides, the mother hen regularly turns them over and moves them with her beak. In tits and lapwings, the parents replace each other during incubation, but in such a way that they do not leave the eggs open for a minute. Most often, only the female sits on the eggs. The father is near the nest, singing to the neighbors that his nest is there, and making sure that neither the cat, nor the magpie, nor any other robber can sneak in unnoticed. He warns the female about the slightest danger with sharp cries, which sits in the nest all night, and goes away for a short time during the day, trying to get food as soon as possible. Thrushes incubate eggs for 13-15 days. For most other songbirds, this period lasts about two weeks. In the early days, the embryo is insensitive to low temperatures. Later, the cold may kill him. Therefore, it is especially dangerous to leave eggs unattended for a long time in cool, damp weather.

The female sitting on the eggs seems to grow to the nest, reluctantly leaves it, staying in it as long as possible. But when an outwardly calm bird sees an approaching enemy or person, a strong heartbeat begins from fear. Therefore, it is better not to disturb the mother hen. Sometimes both parents incubate the eggs. Such "equality" is observed in some kites, black vulture, imperial eagle. The penguins alternately warm the masonry. More often, the female is engaged in breeding offspring (for capercaillie, black grouse, ducks, most passerines), but it happens that only fathers take care of all the worries (for spotted three-fingered birds living in Primorye, or for our northern waders).

Each season has its own signs. Everyone knows early summer as a time of bright colors with a predominance of greens, the first berries and mushrooms, an abundance of warmth and light. And this is also the time when in nature happens an important event – offspring many animals and almost all birds.

Bird voices are heard less and less often - it becomes not up to songs. And in spring, birds - usually males - sing not from carelessness and joyful perception of life (people sometimes think so), but to transmit some of their signals. Now who has nests are still incubating eggs, and who already has chicks hatched out. After all birds not at the same time build nests, they also have different hatching periods (less than two weeks for small passerines, more than a month large predators), and the amount eggs in clutches.

serpent-eater bird

For example, at serpent eagle only one egg tits- more than a dozen, and the gray partridge has more than twenty. In difficult years, when food is scarce, some birds lay fewer eggs, in feed years - more. Not the same for different types participation of parents in incubation. Males alone - black grouse, turukhtans, mallards- do not take the slightest part in the care of offspring. For others, these concerns are shared by both parents. There are also types that incubates eggs and the male takes care of the offspring.

Many clutches dies. For a variety of reasons. Nests are destroyed by a predator, a person, during the production of any work. Bird leaves the nest without sitting on the eggs if something (or someone) bothers her. The weather is not always favorable.

How many worries and anxieties in birds during the buildings nests and incubations! But appear chicks- and even more troublesome time is coming. If ducklings from the first days of their birth they leave the nest, follow their mother and get their own food, this does not mean that it is easier for a duck with them than starlings, who, not knowing fatigue, carry food from dawn to dusk. By the way, it is characteristic that almost all small passerines, even granivorous birds, feed their chicks with insects and their larvae, caterpillars, among which there are a lot of pests of fields, gardens, forests.

And what tricks do birds not resort to in order to save offspring! When danger approaches, they scream excitedly, pretend to be wounded, trying to take the enemy away, some rush at him, selflessly protecting the nest and children.

Grebe with chicks

Crested Grebe however, sensing a threat, they dive with the chicks. And after a while they emerge together with chicks to the surface.

Interesting to watch broods, for the development of cubs. However, care must be taken not to cause birds anxiety. And in general, we must try everywhere and always protect them. After all, the birds have enough worries and worries.

Birds- this is beauty, it is a symbol of freedom, flight. May they always be with us.

The beginning of the phenological summer in the Central Chernozem region usually coincides with the flowering of pink clover, wild rose, the mysterious northern orchid - bileaf love, "dusting" of poplars, the flight of winged individuals in ants and, of course, the departure of chicks from the nest in most bird species. June is not without reason called the month of chicks. Most of our birds breed at this time.

Perhaps the first to leave their nest are crow chicks. I managed to observe how three days before this event, the crows actively climbed the branches of the pine tree on which the nest was located, returning to it at the slightest danger. Then they climbed up at once and settled on the branches about a meter from the nest. They did not return to it again, and on the fourth day they flew freely from tree to tree, gradually moving away from their parental home.

Then it was the turn of the thrushes. First, the song thrush and fieldfare chicks left the nests, and about a week later, the blackbird chicks. At this time, on forest paths and in park alleys, clumsy yellow-mouthed, short-tailed and short-winged fledglings often come across, who look trustingly at everyone who passes by, and calmly allow themselves to be taken in hand.

The chicks of starlings and nightingales do not sit in the nest. Leaving a cozy hollow or other shelter, they begin to stray into flocks. Beneath the trees, where the gangs of starlings gather, their ears can be blocked from their frantic cries. After two or three days, the starlings will leave their nesting sites and appear there only at the end of October, to say goodbye to their home before flying away.

Flocks of field and house sparrows can reach a number of several hundred individuals and roam the surrounding fields and thickets of weeds in search of food.

June is a hot time for woodpeckers. In their hollows, from three (in the white-backed) to eleven (in the gray-haired) chicks can crowd. A hollow in the forest is easy to spot because the chicks are very loud. Apparently, they are confident in their safety. But they just fly out of it and - silent.

A crackling is heard from the bushes - this is the magpies that have got out of their spherical nest. Now they still almost do not know how to fly and, on occasion, escape by deftly climbing bushes and tree branches. Adults, when their offspring are threatened, try to divert attention to themselves, often pretending to be lined.

In the most remote part of the forest, goshawk chicks are preparing to leave the nest. Even now, the stooped posture characteristic of the breed and the cold ruthless look of yellow eyes are visible in them. At first, they, like crow chicks, get out on the branches closest to the nest, but after a day they begin to try wings. True, for at least a month and a half, the family of these predators will stay in close proximity to the nest, and the hawks will become independent only in September, having learned from their parents all the subtleties of hawk hunting.

In the second half of June, from the dense thickets of the "mad cucumber" - this Don vine, densely braiding the trunks and crowns of trees in the floodplain forest - a thin sad whistle is heard, accompanied by a hoarse "cr... cr...". This is all that remains of the sonorous and varied song of the king of Russian singers - the nightingale. The pair I observed accompanied a litter of five fledglings. The nightingale brood will last at most a week, after which the birds will switch to a purely solitary lifestyle until next spring. Almost simultaneously with the nightingales, the chicks of their closest relatives leave the nests: the blue-breasted bluethroat, as well as the whitethroat and the hawk.

And on lakes, ponds and reservoirs - a real pandemonium. Gradually, like snow-white ocean liners, dazzlingly beautiful mute swans sway on the water, leading a brood for the first walk " ugly ducklings". Mallard cubs rise on the wing. A little later, the chicks of red-headed pochards and cracked teals will do this.

Grumpy coot neighbors throw themselves at each other with a cry, seeing a threat to their numerous (up to eleven chicks) brood in every passing bird. True, even two weeks will not pass, as peace will reign in the coot colony and the broods will begin to unite in huge flocks, sometimes reaching several thousand birds.

Like squadron destroyers, large grebes, or grebes, swim swiftly. These magnificent divers keep their chicks on their backs under their wings, distributing approximately equally between their parents. Sensing danger, they dive with the chicks.

And above the ideally smooth smooth surface of the Don oxbow lake, sparkling with a turquoise light, the kingfishers that have recently left their burrow are rapidly flying. They chase their parents with a cry, demanding to immediately give them a small fish tightly clamped in their beak.

On the steppe ponds at this time there are broods of large red ducks - shelducks. There are up to seventeen chicks in them, quickly rising to the wing. In case of danger, the entire brood instantly soars into the air with cries of "gong ... gong ...". This half-goose-half-duck nests in burrows, often using the dwellings of foxes and marmots.

With the onset of darkness, a thin plaintive squeak comes from the treetops. It is the fledglings that recently left the nest begging for food from their parents. long-eared owl. The fluffy company will last together until spring, uniting for the night with other similar broods from October.

Above the water, cutting the air with a low-level flight, swifts swiftly sweep by, and a whistle is heard from the thickets of coastal willows. These birds are still full of nesting worries. The time for their chicks has not yet come.