Kuksha - Perisoreus infaustus: description and images of the bird, its nest, eggs and voice recordings. Ronge bird: description, habitat, species features, reproduction, life cycle, characteristic features and features Features and habitat

Name

The word kuksha is borrowed from Finnish (cf. the Karelian word kuukšo "kuksha"). In Russian dialects there is another name for this bird - ronzha, which is considered a borrowing from the Baltic languages ​​(cf. Lithuanian rasis "nut"). Names in other languages: English Siberian Jay, French Mesangeai imitateur, German Ungluckshaher, Spanish Arrendajo comun, Portuguese Gaio da Siberia, Italian Ghiandaia siberiana, Icelandic Vaskadi, Swedish Lavskrika, Norwegian Lavskrike, Danish Lavskrige, Finnish Kuukkeli, Estonian Laanenaar, Dutch Taigagaai, Polish Sojka zlowroga, Czech Sojka zlovestna, Hungarian Eszaki szajko, Mongolian Duudush, Khakassian Alan pas, alyg pas, ala pas, Esperanto Muta garolo. In the literature there is an old Latin name - Cractes infaustus

Appearance

It looks like a jay, but has a slightly smaller size - length 26 - 30 cm, weight 70 - 100 g. The color is grayish-brown, the top of the head and wings are dark, the tail is red, in the middle of the tail there is a longitudinal dark stripe, the undertail is reddish. It can be distinguished from a jay by the color of the tail and the absence of white spots.

Spreading

It lives in the taiga forests of Eurasia from Scandinavia to Anadyr, Sakhalin and Primorye, mainly in spruce-fir and cedar-larch taiga.

Lifestyle

Sedentary bird, in the northern part of the range migrates to the south in winter. Nest builds on a tree, at a height of 2 to 6 m, lays eggs in April - May. The clutch contains 3-5 greenish-gray eggs with dark speckles. Incubation lasts 16 - 17 days. In June - early July, young birds emerge. In nesting time, it is secretive, sometimes it does not fly off the nest even after the tree is cut down. In the rest of the year it is noisy and well visible. Lives in pairs and flocks. In flight, it opens its tail like a fan. The cry is a loud “kzhee-kzhee” and a low whistle “kuuk-kuuk”. The song consists of whistles and deaf sounds. It feeds on both animal (insects, small rodents, small birds, eggs) and plant foods.

Subspecies

There are 11 subspecies:

  • P. infaustus infaustus
  • P. infaustus maritimus
  • P. infaustus opicus
  • P. infaustus ostjakorum
  • P. infaustus rogosowi
  • P. infaustus ruthenus
  • P. infaustus sakhalinensis
  • P. infaustus sibericus
  • P. infaustus tkatchenkoi
  • P. infaustus varnak
  • P. infaustus yakutensis

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See what "Kuksha (bird)" is in other dictionaries:

    See Jay... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    Kuksha: Kuksha is a bird of the corvid family of the order Passeriformes. Kuksha (a tributary of the Botcha) Kuksha (a tributary of the Ponoi) The Kuksha (a tributary of the Tom) is a river in the Kemerovo region. Kuksha Odessa (in the world Kosma Velichko; 1875 1964) Ukrainian saint ... ... Wikipedia

    Bird of the crow family. Length 26 30 cm. In the coniferous forests of the North. Eurasia... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    Blind bitch. Perm., Prikam. Iron. About a person with complete or partial loss of vision. /i> Kuksha bird jay. MFS, 52; SGPO, 267 ... Big Dictionary Russian sayings

    Kuksha- Perisoreus infaustus see also 18.12.4. Genus Kuksha Perisoreus Kuksha Perisoreus infaustus A bird with loose fluffy plumage a little smaller than a dove, grayish brown with dark wings, a long, red tail with a black longitudinal stripe ... Birds of Russia. Directory

One of the beautiful taiga birds - nutcracker. She lives there, where there is a cedar. Krasnoyarsk people love this bird, but hunters do not really like it. If it is quiet in the autumn taiga and there are no nutcrackers, it means that the walnut crop has not been harvested this year. If nutcrackers scream everywhere, quarrel with each other, it means cedars with nuts. But have time to quickly fill the bags with nuts, otherwise the nutcracker cones will be peeled off, leaving you with nothing.

Nutcrackers skillfully pull nuts out of cones, easily destroy them with a rather powerful beak. And not so much eat as hide. That is why a walnut crop, especially a not very plentiful one, can disappear in a matter of days. The nutcracker stuffs a sublingual bag with nuts and carries them to bury them somewhere in the moss, in the forest floor, in a tussock in a neighboring swamp, in a crack in the bark of a cedar or fir. During the autumn, one bird can make a thousand storerooms, on average, ten nuts each, and in total it hides up to 60-90 kilograms of a first-class nut per season. She immediately rejects a bad nut and does not carry it into her burrows. Not only the hostess can use the storerooms, by the smell of a nut, especially in severe frosts, her friends can also unmistakably find it. At the same time, all birds consider the stocks to be their own.

In addition, the hostess may die for some reason, but the funerals will remain. And they will get other birds. Nutcrackers often dig in the snow in winter, looking for nuts. They find them by smell. A small bird nutcracker can dig snow up to sixty centimeters deep.

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Pantries of nutcrackers are potential crops of future cedar forests. With a large harvest, Nutcrackers store more nuts than they need, part of the storerooms remain untouched. And if the nuts are not gnawed by voles, chipmunks, squirrels, sables, shoots will appear in place of the pantry. Then a brood of young nutcrackers will rise here, but only one of this bunch will survive to fruitful maturity. And if only two cedars grow out of what the nutcracker hid for a year, and for this the bird needs to be thanked. After all hundreds of nutcrackers in the forest, every year two per bird is a lot. All natural cedar plantations in the forest are the work of nutcrackers.

Kedrovka expands the boundaries of cedar forests. This is an amazing symbiosis of cedar and nutcracker, which are very closely related to each other. Chipmunk, squirrel can also pull nuts through the forest. But mice usually eat not only their own supplies, but also sneak up on strangers.

Kuksha

The nutcracker belongs to the corvidae family, to which another one belongs taiga bird - kuksha, or ronzha. In the winter taiga, this is one of the most noticeable birds, trusting, curious. At the taiga huts, several kukshas are certainly kept - they pick up food. Some hunters feed the kuksha, and the birds may become tame. Others, on the contrary, shoot them in any case for pecked prey, stolen bait in traps. By the way, a lot of nutcrackers and kukshas die in traps and dies of hunters.

Kuksha- a bird slightly smaller than a jackdaw, jay or nut. The top of her body is olive-brown in color, the "cap" is blackish-brown; underside greyish-brown. The tail is red. Kuksha is an exclusively forest bird; it does not go beyond the forest zone even in non-breeding time. Most often found in the depths of the forest, on the outskirts comes across very rarely; usually kept below the middle layer of the forest. Flies easily, silently; during flight, the tail opens like a fan. The cry of the kuksha is quite loud and is transmitted: "kuk ... kuk ..." or "kei .. kei ..." In addition to the usual cry, you can also hear a variety of "chatter". A very lively and very mobile bird; less wary than the jay. There is little fear of man.

Area. Kuksha is widespread in the taiga zone and goes from northern Scandinavia, the Kola Peninsula, the northern half of the European part of the USSR through Siberia to Anadyr, the Okhotsk coast, and Sakhalin. There is no kuksha in Kamchatka. To the north, approximately to the border of the forest zone; it goes south to the latitude of Moscow, the Southern Urals, Altai, Transbaikalia, the adjacent parts of northern Mongolia, the Ussuri Territory.
The boreal parts of North America and the mountainous forests of Sichuan have two other species.

The nature of the stay. Sedentary and in winter nomadic bird, however, the size of these migrations is small. As an accidental migrant bird in winter, the kuksha was caught in Denmark, the Tatras, and Hungary (Menzbir, 1895). In autumn and winter, vagrant kuksha were found in the Chkalov area (Zarudny, 1888). Also as winter bird given for the northeastern part of Kazakhstan (Dolgushin, 1948).

Biotope. Kuksha is a characteristic forest bird. Settles mainly among the spruce-fir and cedar-larch taiga. During wanderings it is also found in birch forests. It usually settles in deaf areas of the forest.

population. It is not the same everywhere, in some places it is found as a more or less common bird, in others it is rare.

reproduction. Pairs are probably permanent, as the male and female stay together throughout the year, and they do not seem to lose their bonds even when they stray in flocks for a short period of time. Nest on trees of different heights - from 2 to 6 m, on spruces, pines, firs. It is arranged between the trunk and the branch departing from it, also directly on the branches themselves. The building is dense, made of dry twigs, insulated with lichens, feathers, stems of herbaceous plants, etc. The nest is 23 cm in diameter, 5-7 cm thick, the diameter of the tray is 9 cm.

The kuksha nests early. One clutch per year. In the south and in central Finland sometimes in March, in Lapland in April. Number of eggs 3-4, occasionally 5. Dimensions about 28-32.8x21-23.2 mm. The coloration is greenish or dirty grayish-white with more or less numerous gray and violet-gray streaks, more often thickened at the blunt end of the egg. Incubation begins with the first egg. The duration of incubation is 16-17 days; from the last egg to the departure of the chicks, 53-61 days pass (Steamers).

3.1 Least Concern :


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Synonyms:

See what "Kuksha" is in other dictionaries:

    And, husband. Art. Russian redk.Otch.: Kukshich, Kukshichna. Origin: (Kuksha is the name of a bird from the passerine family.) Name day: September 9, October 11. Dictionary of personal names. Kuksha September 9 (August 27) and October 11 (September 28) - Hieromartyr Kuksha Pechersky ... Dictionary of personal names

    Kuksha- Perisoreus infaustus see also 18.12.4. Genus Kuksha Perisoreus Kuksha Perisoreus infaustus A bird with loose fluffy plumage a little smaller than a dove, grayish brown with dark wings, a long, red tail with a black longitudinal stripe ... Birds of Russia. Directory

    F;, bird Corvus intaustus (garrulus), jay, ronzha, forest funnel; ours, with a blue mirror, soybean and ronzha: Siberian, with red-yellow, kuksha (Kunsha is mistaken for Gmelin). | * Badly, untidy, clumsily dressed woman. | sowing husk, shell, ... ... Dictionary Dalia

    Bird of the crow family. Length 26 30 cm. In the coniferous forests of the North. Eurasia... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (died in the 2nd half of the 12th century) a monk of the Kiev Caves Monastery, who preached Christianity to the Vyatichi people who lived on the Oka, and was killed by them. His memory is August 27. The legend about him in the Epistle of Simon of Vladimir according to Polycarp ... Biographical Dictionary

    Exist., number of synonyms: 3 bird (723) ronzha (4) jay (5) ASIS synonym dictionary. V.N. Trishin ... Synonym dictionary

    The Holy Martyr, Hieromonk of the Kiev Caves Monastery, was killed on August 27, 1217. Biographical information about him is very scarce. It is believed that he was a native of the Vyatichi country. He decided to preach Christianity among the pagans of his tribe and among ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

    Bird of the crow family. Length 26 30 cm. In the coniferous forests of Northern Eurasia. * * * Kuksha Kuksha (Cractes infaustus), a bird of the crow family. Length 26 30 cm; body weight 70 100 g. The upper body is olive brown, the cap on the head and the wings are blackish ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (Perisoreus infaustus) a bird of the raven family of the passerine order. Body length 26 30 cm, weighs about 80 g. The plumage is dense brownish gray, the top of the head is dark brown, the wings and tail are red. Distributed in coniferous forests in the north of Europe and Asia; ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    Blind bitch. Perm., Prikam. Iron. About a person with complete or partial loss of vision. /i> Kuksha bird jay. MFS, 52; SGPO, 267 ... Big dictionary of Russian sayings

A small bird of the corvidae family is outwardly easily confused with a jay. The same gray color, orange tail. But the size of the individual is more like a sparrow than a jay. This is a kuksha or in another way ronzha. The bird, in addition to external beauty, has an amazing voice that the inhabitants of the northern regions of Russia hear, since the bird lives there. Moreover, the singing of young individuals resembles muttering, and only in adulthood the sounds are aligned into a beautiful melody.

The ronja bird sings very quietly, so it is impossible to hear it from afar. But witnesses claim that the singing is somewhat reminiscent of the sounds of bullfinches, the same clicks, clicks and lingering trills. Even captive kukshas are able to master the natural melody on their own, which brings inexpressible joy to the owners of the bird.

In the article, we will introduce the reader to the ronji bird closer, find out its habits, what it likes to do, besides singing, how it builds nests and starts a family where you can meet it in nature. It will also be useful to find out for the owners of this bird, who keep it in a cage at home, what the kuksha likes to eat.

Where does it live

The kuksha lives in the forest zone, loves spruce, fir, cedar or larch thickets of the taiga. It can be found near Moscow, Kazan or in the latitude of the Southern Urals, it also lives in the regions of Altai and Transbaikalia adjacent to Mongolia. The habitat covers the territory up to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Sakhalin and the Scandinavian countries. The ronja bird is most common in the north European Russia, with the approach to the south, the number of individuals is significantly reduced.

In total there are 11 species of this bird. Two of them can be found even in the forests of China and in North America.

This bird characteristically begins to travel the kuksha only in winter period, and even then at close distances, uniting in small flocks. Birds ply in search of food along the same route every day, but it has been noticed that for some reason in February they fly this distance twice.

At this time, it can be seen even in birch groves. But most of all she likes to settle in the most remote thickets of cedar, fir, spruce or larch forests. In winter vagrant periods, kuksh can be seen in Denmark, Hungary and in the Slovak Tatras. It is possible to meet it in the north-eastern part of Kazakhstan.

Appearance

The ronzha bird (kuksha) has a light gray feather color, turning into black on the head. From a distance it seems that a black cap is put on his head. Thanks to this coloring, it easily hides among the trees of the forest, only a red tail and small spots on the wings give it away. The flight feathers themselves are brown. The beak and legs are black.

In size, the bird is larger than a sparrow, but smaller than a jay, about 26-30 cm along with the tail in males. Females are slightly smaller, from 24 to 28 cm. The weight of the bird is on average from 81 grams in females to 87 grams in males. The beak is rather short, slightly curved at the end of the mandible. The tail is long and rounded at the end, consists of 10 tail feathers.

What does it eat

The food goes to the ronja bird (photo below) quite easily, since this bird is omnivorous. She perfectly eats the seeds of coniferous trees, various berries that grow in forests. Also does not disdain ronja and food of animal origin. These are insects, they especially like to catch bugs, small birds or mice, shrews or voles.

There are known cases of ruining the nests of other bird species by kukshas, ​​while chicks are used as food. In winter, when there is a lack of food, they can attack white partridges caught in the nets by birders, or finish eating animals killed by other predators, do not disdain carrion. For the winter, in the hollows, the kuksha harvests stocks of lingonberries and other berries.

Where does he settle

The kuksha (another name for the bird is ronzha) makes nests at a height of 2 to 6 meters, hiding nests in dense thickets of the taiga. It is located most often between the trunk and the branch extending to the side, but it is also found on the branches themselves.

The shape of the nests is bowl-shaped, they are built neatly, from thin branches and grass stalks. They insulate a dense structure with feathers, lichens, dry grass. The nest size is as follows:

  • diameter - 23 cm;
  • wall thickness - from 5 to 7 cm;
  • inner tray diameter - 9 cm.

reproduction

The kuksh family is formed for a long time. The male and female live together for a whole year, and according to the observations of ornithologists, most likely, even in a short period of flock formation, they do not lose sight of each other. This happens in winter, when it is easier to survive in a flock. Sometimes there are kukshas in the amount of 6-8 birds along with titmouses. Before the start of the breeding season, flocks break up. Male courtship starts from March to April.

Rongs start nesting early and only once a year. There is a nesting period sometimes in March, sometimes in April. Eggs are usually 3-4 pieces, very rarely - 5. Their size varies from 23 to 28 mm. The color of the eggs is different, from greenish-gray to off-white, sometimes there are variegated spots with a purple tint, thickening at the blunt end of the egg.

Incubation begins with the very first egg and lasts 16-17 days. Both parents sit on the masonry together, clinging tightly to each other, do not leave the nest, even if the person bothers them.

After hatching, both parents take care of the offspring. Chicks are born completely helpless, covered with thick brown fluff.

Grown-up ronjis learn to fly already on the 21st day, but even after leaving the nest, they remain nearby for a long time.

Moult

The change of feathers in the kuksha begins in mid-June. First, the small feather changes, at the end of June, the flight feathers in the stumps change. In mid-September, the molting process is almost over, the only thing left is the small feathers on the head and neck. Such information was obtained as a result of catching birds in different periods.

The name kuksha, according to one version, the bird received from the sound "kuuk" emitted by it. Other ornithologists believe that the name of the species comes from the Finnish word kuukkeli.

Only Russians call it ronzha, since in some dialects of the Baltic peoples this is what they call nuts. But since such birds do not live in the Baltic states, the name ronzha is not used among scientists and ornithologists.

Other birds are also often called ronja, for example, nutcracker, roller, waxwing, jay.

The article provides a photo and description of the ronzha bird (scientifically kuksha). latin correct name individuals - Perisoreus infaustus. Now you can easily recognize such a bird in the forest, because it is impossible to confuse it with anyone.