Woodpecker bird. Features and habitat of the woodpecker. Family: Picidae = Woodpeckers Middle Spotted Woodpecker
Woodpeckers tap and serenade their girlfriends, inviting them to unite in “legal marriage.”
These drum trills are an essential and enchanting accompaniment to the spring sounds and chants that fill the forest. Have you heard them, of course?
Each woodpecker knocks in its own rhythm, and the tree vibrates under its blows; for each species of woodpecker, in its own special range of sound frequencies. By slightly changing the intervals between beats, the duration of the drum trill and other “arrangement” of this “music”, woodpeckers can tell their partner and rival a lot about their intentions. So it turns out that this drumming is a kind of language.
Experts, analyzing the drumming of woodpeckers, can decide without error: the woodpecker is drumming on his own territory or laying claim to someone else’s, calling for a female, or they have already connected and the woodpecker invites her to fly after him to show the place chosen for the nest.
The black woodpecker, or woodpecker, has the longest trill - 2-3 seconds, it contains about forty beats that quickly follow each other. The Great Spotted Woodpecker has a short trill: 12-16 beats in 0.6 seconds. The drum “song” of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is longer - 30 beats.
When a female arrives in response to this peculiar call, the woodpecker does not behave very friendly with her. He looks after him very militantly. The spouses continue to barely tolerate each other. One will arrive, the other will quickly fly away. They feed the chicks and quickly part ways. Woodpecker chicks hatch faster than all other birds (except cuckoos); the Great Spotted Woodpecker, for example, hatches an egg in just 10 days. Each adult woodpecker lives on
his territory, from which he also expels grown-up children.
There are 14 species of woodpeckers living in Russia. The biggest one is black woodpecker, or yellow. He is black, like a raven, with a red cap. The female has red feathers only on the back of her head. Sitting on a tree or flying through the forest, the yellowtail screams loudly “kru-kru-kru”, then in a drawn-out, nasal voice - “kiya”. The hollow is hollowed out with a rectangular or oval entrance.
The most common Russian woodpecker - big motley. Also loud. It catches your eye more often than others. The entrance to the hollow is round. Less than all other woodpeckers - small motley: the size of a sparrow.
All three of these species nest in the forest belt, from the western to eastern borders of the former USSR, as well as in the Caucasus. Here, in the Caucasus, and in the European part of Russia, the green woodpecker lives. Actually, only its back is truly green, its wings and tail are brown, and on its head there is a red “cap”, like a yellow one. Green woodpeckers live in deciduous and mixed forests and feed mainly on ants.
The main food of one of the South African woodpeckers is also ants (and termites). It has very unusual and interesting habits for woodpeckers: it does not hollow out holes in trees, but digs deep holes in cliffs and hills. It hatches chicks in them.
Woodpeckers that nest in holes are also found in South America. And in South Asia they live redheads, or short-tailed woodpeckers. They make themselves comfortable with the eggs and chicks in the nests of very angry fire ants; however, unceremoniously invading their home, woodpeckers live peacefully with them, although they peck at ant pupae.
TOUCANS
The beak of toucans exceeded all imaginable standards in size! Huge in comparison to a bird: in some it is longer than the body (if you do not take into account the length of the tail). Orange, red, yellow-black, green, often multi-colored. Up to five
different tones in its coloring! Thick, but light, not massive, “layered” with air cavities. Serrated along the cutting edge. Very impressive beak! Why does a toucan need such a thing?
At one time it was assumed that
"FORGE"BIGPOTTED WOODPECKER
In winter, the main food of the great spotted woodpecker is the seeds of pine and spruce trees. Having picked a pine or spruce cone, the woodpecker carries it into a specially hollowed-out crevice in the trunk of some dry tree, clamps it there and “processes” it with its beak, removing the seeds. Each cone takes about five minutes and half a thousand beak blows. From morning to evening, throughout the short winter day, the tireless bird knocks in its “forge.” And under the tree, mountains of cones accumulate; under other “forges” scientists found up to 5-6 thousand pieces.
Woodpeckers - migrants
When a real invasion of pest caterpillars began in the forests of the American state of Ohio, scientists decided to involve woodpeckers in the fight against them. Alas, all the dead wood in the forests was regularly cut down and the brought woodpeckers had no place to hollow out their hollows. Indeed, unlike most birds, the woodpecker never spends the night in the open air, but only in a hollow. Then foresters installed poles made of soft plastic in the forest. The woodpeckers, without any prejudice, carved out “apartments” there for themselves. But so that the birds could reproduce, the plastic poles later had to be wrapped in artificial bark: without this, the woodpecker’s mating trill “would not sound.”
Ariel toucan.
Yellow-throated toucan.
a toucan, hiding in a hollow, defends the entrance to it with its grandiose beak. It later turned out that although he could have successfully followed such advice, he did not. When there is danger, it flies out of the hollow. Of course, the large beak is very helpful in picking fruits from thin branches, while the toucan itself sits on a fairly thick branch that holds it without breaking. But a long thin beak would be suitable for this. The excessive thickness of the “nose” even gets in the way here, and the bright multi-colored coloring is completely useless. Therefore, it is believed that the beak of a toucan is most likely a “signal sign” that helps birds find and recognize each other more easily.
In the everyday, so to speak, relationships of toucans, the beak plays an important role. They often drum on bitches with their beaks - while other toucans extract sounds that are pleasant to them from this drumming. Or they fencing with their beaks while playing. They “hug”, clasping each other’s beaks. They throw berries around: one throws them, the second catches them with their beak.
The thick beak is also suitable as a weapon. When attacking the nests of neighbors, toucans boldly use their “noses”: their impressive size and bright, often black and orange (warning, like a wasp) coloring frighten even small birds of prey, and they shamefully leave their nests. Toucans quickly swallow eggs or chicks and fly away.
This beak is suitable for killing a small snake, lizard or spider, catching winged termites when they swarm, or snatching fish out of the water and, of course, for eating fruits and berries - the main food of toucans.
But the magnificent beak is unsuitable for chiseling wood, even rotten ones. Therefore, toucans have to occupy empty woodpecker hollows and various natural cavities in trunks, expanding the entrance, if necessary. The eggs hatch directly on wood dust. In old hollows, occupied by toucans from year to year, a litter of undigested seeds is formed, which they, apparently, regurgitate here specifically for this purpose.
Toucan chicks are naked, red-skinned, and blind. Eyes open very late - after 3 weeks! They also grow feathers slowly - the month-old chicks have not yet fully fledged. They have heel calluses on their feet - protection, so to speak, from “bedsores.” After all, they sit on a hard tree in a hollow for a long time: about two months.
Large toucans are poor flyers and are reluctant to take to the air. They prefer to jump in the branches. Cheerful birds: they often play with each other, jump, knock on branches with their beaks and, bowing their heads, listen to their “music”. They bathe with noise and screams in the forks of thick branches, where rainwater collects. They are curious birds, mischievous, but they have friendly relations with each other, they do not abandon wounded relatives, and they attack the enemy all together, like our crows.
Some toucans in the evenings, before going to bed, start a duet of “songs” on the same tree they have chosen. However, their wild cries can hardly be called singing. Having sat down opposite each other and raising their huge beaks up, they strangely, not like a bird, shout “hee-knook!”, “hee-knook!” And toucans of one of the species shout something like “Tokano! Tokano!”, for which the entire family of toucans received their name. The calls of many toucans are more like the croaking of frogs, like the yapping of a puppy.
Toucans of one of the species - Arassari- spend the night in hollows in groups of 5-6 birds. They sleep like this: the bulky beak is laid on the back, and the tail is thrown up and forward, over the beak. “The last bird,” assures one zoologist, “squeezes itself into such a room backwards, with its tail laid on its back.”
Representatives of the genus of true toucans are usually jet black, with dazzling orange
thin, yellow or white spots on the throat, chest and rump. The undertail is red. The bare skin on the “face” around the eyes is orange, blue, green, yellow. The eyes are blue. In general, the birds are beautifully colored! When they sit motionless, you can mistake them for a bright fruit or flower. There are also green toucans, those in
you won't even notice the tree branches. About 40 species of toucans live in Central and South America, and these birds can be found here very often. Toucans are noisy, carefree, mischievous - real children of the tropical jungle.
CRANES
Six different species of cranes nest in the CIS countries (there are a dozen species in total). Let's start the story about them with Ussuri, or Japanese, crane, because he has a particularly interesting behavior, and he himself is very handsome: snow-white, with a black neck and a red “cap” on his head, and when he dances, they say, he simply takes the audience’s breath away.
In fact, almost all cranes dance in one way or another, but the Ussuri is simply a virtuoso in this matter. Crane dancing, apparently, is not only a current ritual, but also simply an expression of joy and good mood. Males and females dance, old and very young, whose marriageable age will not come soon, and at all times of the year, not only in spring. Ussuri cranes dance even in winter in the snow.
These cranes dance in pairs and as a whole flock. This is a couple dance. Both birds (by the way, the male and female cannot be distinguished by appearance) suddenly interrupt their search for food for a while and turn their beaks towards each other. One of them begins to bow: she stretches her neck towards her partner, slightly arching it downwards. In this pose, the crane's head and neck gently sway up and down, up and down. The bird then flaps its wings (obviously it is a male) and dances around the female. After which both birds, standing opposite each other, jump up, flapping their wings. Having risen two meters above the ground, the birds spread their wings and smoothly descend. Sometimes, having jumped especially high, the cranes perform a “dancing flight”: side by side, they slowly and gracefully glide down and land about forty meters from the place where they took off. Usually after this they stop dancing, dust themselves off and again busily wander around the meadow.
The pack dance is performed slightly differently. If a bird invites its partner to dance, other cranes grazing peacefully in the swamp often surround them and begin to jump too. Sometimes a whole dozen birds dance. Some perform the entire dance, others do a few lazy jumps, others stand and watch, others - those who are closer - cannot
hold on so as not to dance. “Apparently,” writes one zoologist, “dance has the same infectious effect on cranes as laughter has on us.”
Young cranes do not have to learn the art of dancing from older birds; they are born “trained”, with full knowledge of all figures and pirouettes. A baby crane living in captivity, five days old, already knew all the figures of the dance characteristic of their tribe. But he had never seen other cranes dance.
Unfortunately, very few of these magnificent dancers remain on Earth. In Japan, for example, only a little more than 250 Ussuri cranes live. We have about 200 of these birds in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories, and about a thousand around the world.
Crane wedge.
But how the naturalist Nelson in the 19th century. described the dance whooping crane:“The male turned to the female and gave her a deep, almost prostrate bow, which ended with a quick leap. The female responded in kind, and then they both began to dance - they first took off, then jumped, and in between, they bowed to each other with comic importance.”
Siberian Crane, or the white crane, is famous not for its dancing, but for the heroic efforts people made to save it. A hundred years ago there were many Siberian Cranes and they nested over a vast territory. And now only in two regions of the Russian North do Siberian Cranes nest: in Western Siberia (in the lower reaches of the Ob) and in the northeast of Yakutia. They winter in India and China. The Ob Siberian Cranes nest in the flat tundra and forest-tundra, the Yakut Siberian Cranes nest in the moss swamps of the taiga.
The Siberian Crane is one of the fewest cranes in the world: about 50 Ob cranes survived, and no more than 250 Yakut cranes.
Birds are clearly going extinct. How to save them? And then ornithologist professor Vladimir Evgenievich Flint had a great idea. White cranes have two eggs in their clutch. However, they raise only one chick (the second is beaten to death by the firstborn). This means that without danger to the preservation of the species, one egg can be taken and a chick can be raised from it in an incubator.
Here Professor Flint and his staff are looking for nests of Siberian Cranes in the vast expanses of the tundra in the spring. Take one egg from each one found. But how to transport them so that they do not die on the way from the distant tundra to their destination - the incubator? In addition, there were no incubators suitable for breeding cranes in the USSR at that time. Everything was done very quickly, thoughtfully and accurately: by helicopter, then by plane, the Siberian Crane eggs in a special thermostat (they were first placed in woolen stockings) were delivered to the USA, to the crane nursery, in no more than 48 hours. There, young Siberian Cranes were raised from them, which in turn gave birth to offspring. Now in Russia (in the Prioksky Nature Reserve) an incubator necessary for cranes has been created.
By the way, according to some data, Siberian Cranes and cranes in general can probably be considered the longest-living among birds. There are cases when these birds lived up to 82 years.
The gray crane is the most common of all cranes living in the CIS. It is not very picky in choosing habitats: these birds can be found from northern forest-tundra to southern deserts, in the mountains and on plains, in meadows and forest swamps.
It nests on the ground, often in swamp bogs. He builds a nest from grass: he rakes it into a heap, tramples on it, smartens up properly - and the cradle for the cranes is ready. Nesting for gray cranes in mid-latitudes is usually in April.
“Nesting is preceded,” writes Professor Flint, “by peculiar current games (“dancing” of cranes), when several birds gather together and alternately perform characteristic movements: they crouch, jump with half-opened wings and scream.” By the end of summer, cranes gather in flocks and fly south in the fall.
The smallest of all the cranes in the world, the demoiselle (body length - up to 90 cm), lives in the steppe regions from Moldova to Transbaikalia. The belladonna's outfit is quite modest: the crane itself is gray, and the neck and head are black. It is named so for its “whiskers” - long tufts of white feathers on both sides of the head.
These cranes make nests like this: they dig a small hole and do not put anything soft in it. But they will lay eggs that “perfectly harmonize with the color of the soil, and the nest is very difficult to notice even in a completely open place” (as Professor Flint claims).
The most beautiful of all the earth's cranes is the crowned crane. It was named so for the tuft of the finest golden feathers spread out like a fan on the back of its head - this crane is crowned with a magnificent crown! The bird itself is black with white ends of its wings, and its cheeks seem to be rouged: they shine pink.
In Africa, these cranes are valued not only for their beauty, but also for the benefits they bring to farmers: they eat a lot of locusts! Moreover, they have their own special method of catching it: these beauties stride along the savannah and stomp heavily on the ground with their feet. If he takes a step, he will kick, another step - another blow... Frightened by this knocking, the locusts and other insects fly out of the grass, and the cranes deftly grab them. And the crowned crane also differs from other cranes in that it often makes nests in low trees. All other cranes nest on the ground and never perch on trees.
And in conclusion, a little about the general characteristics of cranes. As you know, they are similar to some herons and storks; many even confuse cranes with the latter and consider them close relatives (however, scientists previously thought so). However, storks and cranes belong to completely different orders of birds. Herons and storks are related to the shrews, and cranes are related to the cranes. When a crane flies, it stretches its neck forward and throws its legs back. Therefore, it is easy to distinguish it from a heron, which bends its neck in the shape of the Latin letter “S” in flight. A unique feature of cranes is their very long trachea, curved in a loop. Thanks to this structure of the throat, cranes are able to scream very loudly: their crowing, well known to everyone, can be heard more than a kilometer away. Cranes are omnivores: they eat berries, young grass, snails, beetles, and frogs.
Cranes are widespread on all continents, except South America, and, of course, Antarctica.
The Great Spotted Woodpecker is the most important doctor of our forests. Everyone knows where and how to find him: he sits taller than everyone else, and is painted brighter than everyone else. Red cap, white robe, black pants, festive yellow jacket - what’s not to be handsome?! This bird sits on the trunk in a peculiar way, unlike everyone else - like a “soldier”. It catches itself with its sharp claws, supports itself with its hard and elastic tail, peels pine cones and bark with its beak, and removes pests.
In search of food, the great spotted woodpecker moves up the trunk in a spiral, stopping high above the ground. If frightened, he hides behind a tree trunk and glances at the stranger from time to time.
But the woodpecker's beak is also a musical instrument. As soon as he knocks on a dry branch in the spring, the drum roll will cut through the silence: “Tra-ta-ta.”
Woodpeckers fly well and quickly, but they prefer to climb trees, using their wings only to fly to the next tree.
From the very beginning of spring to May, woodpeckers drum on branches with suitable resonance. The fraction consists of 12-18 beats, the tempo increases, and after 2-3 minutes everything is repeated. The shot serves to secure territory and attract a female. In April, the drumming reaches its climax. Some woodpeckers living in the suburbs discover the charm of using roofing tin as a resonator and drumming on gutters and other metal parts. When a woodpecker drums, it taps vertically on its “drum,” while when searching for food, it performs side kicks to reach insects and their larvae.
These birds nest in hollows that they hollow out themselves. But an unfriendly woodpecker family will not last long in such a nest. At first, while the chicks are small, the female woodpecker carefully takes care of the children, hoping for their help in the future; He doesn’t forget to feed the father of the family.
But a little later, he will chase away the grown chicks and wave his wing to his beloved - such is their freedom-loving disposition, drummers.
Great spotted woodpecker voice:
Your browser does not support the audio element.Text used:
A. Gorkanova. "Migratory and wintering birds of Russia. Thematic dictionary in pictures"
Artist: Ekaterina Reznichenko
Great Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopos major Somewhat larger than the starling. The underparts are white. The upperparts are black, with wide white stripes on the wings. A black stripe runs from the beak along the neck to the crop. The undertail is red. The male has a nape, and in young birds the entire top of the head is red. The bird's cry resembles a sharp "kick". Unlike the white-backed woodpecker, the back is black. Lives in various (usually deciduous and mixed) forest types. Resident bird. Nests in hollows. Egg laying in April. This bird can be found in almost any forest, park, forest plantation, garden or summer cottage. You pay attention to it more often in the spring, when woodpeckers become especially noisy and active. Males often make a "trill" sound. Sitting on the trunk, the male quickly hits a dry branch with his beak, and the branch vibrating under these blows emits a kind of trill - “drum roll”, something like “tra-ta-ta...”. This trill replaces the song of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. You can hear it far away even in a dense forest. The female flies to this “song” and a pair is formed. The formed pair zealously defends its nesting site, expelling all other woodpeckers from it. Somewhere in the middle of this area the birds make their nest. For its construction, a tree with soft or rotting wood is selected. Usually, in a trunk, at a height of 2-8 m from the ground, woodpeckers hollow out a hollow for themselves. At the end of April - in May, eggs are laid. The clutch usually consists of 5-7 shiny white eggs. Woodpeckers fly well and quickly, describing a smooth arc in the air: flapping their wings several times, the bird rises to the top of the arc, then folds its wings and swiftly, like a thrown spear, flies forward, quickly losing altitude, then flaps its wings again, etc. However, in all cases, they prefer to climb a tree trunk, using their wings only to fly to a neighboring tree. Even when the bird is in danger, it is in no hurry to fly away. The woodpecker spends most of its time searching for food. Naturally, it is possible to collect a huge number of insects necessary for feeding chicks only from a large area of forest. It is not surprising, therefore, that the hunting area of a pair of woodpeckers occupies about 15 hectares. With strong blows, the woodpecker breaks the bark or makes a funnel in it, exposing the passages of the root insects, and with its sticky long tongue, which easily penetrates these passages, the bird removes larvae and adult insects from under the bark. In autumn, the woodpecker's method of obtaining food and its composition change. The bird picks a cone from a coniferous tree, clamps it into a natural or hollowed-out niche in the top of a withered tree trunk, and hits it forcefully with its beak. With blows of its beak, the woodpecker opens the scales of the cone, extracts and eats the seeds. Every day, a woodpecker breaks up to 100 cones, and therefore, in order to provide itself with food in the winter, each bird takes over an individual plot in the fall, the area of which, depending on the yield of coniferous seeds and the number of coniferous trees on the plot, ranges from 5 to 15 hectares. Birds protect their individual areas and do not allow other woodpeckers into them. In early spring, woodpeckers, along with seeds, again begin to eat insects that have emerged after wintering. And during the period when sap begins to flow in birches, the woodpecker often makes horizontal rows of holes in the bark with its beak on the trunks and branches of trees and, when the sap appears, alternately applies its beak to each hole and drinks. Thus, there is a clearly defined seasonal change in food in the diet of woodpeckers. The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a useful bird. By hollowing out hollows, which are usually not reused by woodpeckers themselves, they thereby create housing for many other very useful birds (for example, tits and flycatchers), which nest in ready-made hollows. You can see other photographs of the Great Spotted Woodpecker
Since ancient times, everyone has been familiar with the sound of a forest shot being knocked out, to which you involuntarily listen and rejoice like a child: woodpecker! In fairy tales, he is called a forest doctor and is endowed with the traits of a tireless worker, kind and persistent in establishing order and providing assistance. What is he really like?
Woodpecker family
The woodpecker family is huge and has settled almost all over the world, except Antarctica, Australia and several islands. It is difficult to count all their species: according to rough estimates, there are more than 200 living in large numbers, and the condition of others is little known, some are already recognized as extinct. There are 14 species of woodpecker birds in Russia.
Woodpecker feeding
The main food in the warm season consists of woodworms: insects, their larvae, termites, aphids. It is interesting that the woodpecker obtains food only from diseased and rotten plants, without touching healthy trees.
But simple gathering is not alien to it, so berries and plant seeds occupy a significant place in the diet; the woodpecker encroaches on small passerine birds, their eggs and chicks.
In winter, the main diet consists of seeds and nuts obtained from the cones of coniferous plants. The woodpecker creates entire forges by placing cones in crevices and breaking them with his beak. In the forest you can find mountains of husks from such work. Sometimes creates storage rooms. In frosty weather, birds can approach cities, feeding on food waste and carrion.
Instead of water in winter, the woodpecker swallows snow, and in spring it likes to extract birch or maple sap by breaking through the bark of trees. Buds and young shoots of plants also become food.
Woodpecker reproduction and lifespan
The mating season of woodpeckers begins in the spring. Having decided on the choice of a pair, the birds build a nesting hollow. They work in turns, lining the bottom with wood chips. To protect the offspring from predators, they make two very small entrances and camouflage them with branches, and sometimes they immediately place their shelter under a tree tinder fungus.
3-7 white eggs are hatched in turn, and after 15 days the first chicks begin to appear. Their appearance is completely helpless: naked, blind, deaf. But after about a month, the fledgling inheritance squeals so much that it is not difficult for hunters to find them. Having not yet learned to fly, they are already running along the trunk.
Pictured is a woodpecker chick
A year later, sexual maturity sets in, but already in the first winter the parents mercilessly drive away the young, since it is easier for woodpeckers to feed themselves one at a time. Woodpeckers of different species live in natural conditions from about 5 to 11 years.
Woodpeckers in Russia
Representatives of different species of woodpeckers live in the forests of Russia, among which the most common are
- black or yellow,
- big motley,
- small motley,
- three-fingered gray-haired
- green.
Black is the most great woodpecker, weight up to 300 grams, from the woodpecker inhabitants of our country. It differs from others by its oval entrance to a spacious hollow. Another special feature is a long and loud trill, which is considered a call to relatives.
In the photo there is a black woodpecker bird
Big and small spotted woodpecker– these views are some of the most beautiful. Greater motley is often found in park areas and city limits. Small, about the size, lives in the Caucasus, and Primorye, on Sakhalin. It is considered the most playful and agile.
Pictured is a Great Spotted Woodpecker
Three-toed woodpecker- inhabitant of northern coniferous forests. He is very voracious: in a day he can peel off a tall spruce to get bark beetles. The name refers to the missing front finger. The green woodpecker, unlike its relatives, runs well on the ground in search of worms and caterpillars. He loves ant eggs, which is why he digs holes in anthills.
Pictured is a three-toed gray woodpecker
The birds' bright plumage and activity make them targets for captivity. About the woodpecker at home it is known that it is easily tamed, even flies to its name, but to create conditions for the bird, spacious enclosures with tree trunks are needed.
Communication with birds requires caution, as they can injure with a blow from their beak. If you manage to create an artificial corner of the forest for a woodpecker, then it will certainly become a favorite, communication with which will bring many pleasant moments.
They nest in hollows, in burrows, in anthills, in termite mounds. As a rule, without bedding, whirligigs have a small bedding of plants, while toucans have a small bedding of regurgitated seeds. From 2 to 12 white eggs. The chicks are born blind, and in most species they are naked. For many, sexual maturity is next year. The birds are small and medium-sized, weighing from 6 to 300 grams.
383 species in forests all over the world, except Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Polynesia. Woodpeckers, whose beak works like an excellent jackhammer, obviously require a special structure of the skull to prevent concussion: a number of special transformations in the bones and muscles of the skull, the details of which we will not go into, provide the necessary shock absorption.
The whirligig, having filled its beak full with ant eggs, brought them to the chicks.
The tongue of woodpeckers, like a long thin snake, dashingly “crawls” into all the nooks and crannies of the tree that have been hollowed out and eaten by bark beetles. It is sticky, has a spiked end and is very long; a green woodpecker, for example, is able to stick it out of its mouth 10 centimeters. In order for such an insect-catching device to fit in the throat, the evolution that created the woodpecker had to remove the tendonous base of the tongue from the oral cavity and wrap it in a loop around the skull!
Woodpeckers use their strong beak to extract insects from durable wood or seeds from cones, to punch holes in the bark of birch trees (in spring, woodpeckers like to drink birch sap), and to set up apartments in the form of a hollow carved into a tree. This labor-intensive work usually takes no more than two weeks. Drumming with their beaks on a dry trunk or branch, woodpeckers tap and serenade their girlfriends, inviting them to unite in legal marriage.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker feeds its babies.
These drum trills are an essential and enchanting accompaniment to the spring sounds and chants that fill the forest. Each woodpecker knocks in its own rhythm, and the tree vibrates under its blows in each species in a special frequency range. By slightly varying the intervals between beats, the duration of the drum trill and other “orchestration” of this “music,” woodpeckers can tell their partner and rival a lot about their intentions. Experts, analyzing the drumming of woodpeckers, can decide without error: the woodpecker is drumming on his own territory or is laying claim to someone else’s, is calling a friend, or they have already connected and the woodpecker invites her to fly after him to show the place chosen for the nest.
The black woodpecker, or woodpecker, has the longest trill - 2-3 seconds. There are about 40 beats in quick succession, which are easy to count by slowly playing the tape recording. It is also the lowest frequency - 1-1.5 kilohertz. The great spotted woodpecker has a short trill, 12-16 beats in 0.6 seconds, and sounds at higher tones, about 4 kilohertz. The drum “song” of the Great Spotted Woodpecker is heard in a range of approximately the same frequencies, but it is longer - 30 beats. The gray-haired woodpecker has the same number, but the trill is a little “basier”.
When the female arrives in response to this peculiar call, the woodpecker does not behave very friendly with her. He grooms very militantly: his displaying poses are dominated by threatening gestures, like those of jackdaws. The spouses continue to barely tolerate each other, this is the impression observers get. One will arrive, the other will soon fly away. They feed the chicks and quickly part ways. Everyone lives on their own territory, from which they also expel grown-up children.
Black woodpecker, or yellow woodpecker, in a typical woodpecker position: the tail rests on the bark. There are 14 species of woodpeckers in the USSR. The largest one is yellow. He is black, like a raven, with a red cap. The female has red feathers only on the back of her head. Sitting on a tree or flying through the forest, it shouts loudly “kru-kru-kru”, then in a drawn-out, nasal voice “kiya”. The hollow is hollowed out with a rectangular or oval entrance.
The most common woodpecker is the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Also loud. It catches your eye more often than others. The entrance to the hollow is round. The smallest woodpecker is the lesser spotted woodpecker, about the size of a sparrow. All three species nest in the USSR in the forest belt from the western to the eastern borders, as well as in the Caucasus.
In the forests of almost the entire world, except Madagascar, New Guinea, Australia and nearby islands, there are 207 species of woodpeckers and two species of woodpeckers (one in Africa, the other in Eurasia). Whirlwinds do not dig into trees, their beaks are weak, and their tails are also not suitable for resting on a tree, like woodpeckers. The tongue is sticky, long, of the same structure as that of woodpeckers, but without spines at the end. Wrigglers catch ants with this tongue and deftly fish out pupae and larvae from their nests, which is what they mainly feed on. The wryneck is famous for its skillful imitation of a snake. Caught in a hollow or otherwise taken by surprise and frightened, even wounded, slowly, like a snake, as far as she can, of course, twists her neck and hisses at the same time! The effect is unexpected and probably scares off some enemies, but it is interesting that the same “snake” movements are also seen in the mating games of whirligigs.
The South African woodpecker avoids forests and trees. On the ground and, rummaging in it, catches ants, termites, spiders and other insects. It does not hollow out trees, but digs deep holes in cliffs and hills. It hatches chicks in them. Woodpeckers that nest in holes are also found in South America. And in South Asia there live red-headed, or short-tailed, woodpeckers, who live in complete comfort with eggs and chicks in the tree nests of very angry fire ants. Woodpeckers, unceremoniously invading their home, however, coexist peacefully with these “mad” ants, although they peck ant pupae “without rising from their eggs.”
"Sweet Friendship". Woodpeckers have many relatives in the tropics. By the way, they are completely different from them! For example, barbies, with long bristles at the base of the beak. 76 species in America, Africa and Asia. For their monotonous “songs” that sound like beating metal, they are also called coppersmiths. They nest in hollows, which they dig into rotten wood with their strong beaks.
American jacamaras, 15 species, also from the order Woodpeckers. They are very beautifully colored, catch insects, mainly butterflies, and nest in burrows, less often in termite mounds. There is nothing special to say about them. But other woodpecker relatives have been surprising people with their strange habits for centuries, and until now, apparently, not all of their secrets have been sufficiently studied.
Four hundred years ago, one Portuguese missionary was outraged by the impudence of small gray-brown birds: they flew into a church, it was in Africa, and pecked candles right on the altar! Later, of course, this minor incident was forgotten. But in recent years it has been noticed: honey guides, or honey guides, which look more like sparrows, only larger than woodpeckers, actually fly to the smell of burning wax candles. Just the smell! This has been established both by observation and anatomically: the olfactory lobes in the brain of honey eaters are well developed. But why does the smell of wax attract these birds?
Another unique habit of these birds will explain everything to us. We are talking about friendship, or rather, cooperation that has been established for centuries, a kind of symbiosis, between a honeyeater and a honeyeater - the badger ratel and some other wild animals of Africa and even with humans.
Toucan
The honey badger beekeeper and the honey scout are a wonderful pair. One finds honey, the other extracts it. They eat together. The honey hunter finds a nest of wild bees - in Africa, many bees, like bumblebees, live in the ground - and flies to the ratel's hole. “Churr-churr” crackles, flutters from bush to bush: calling a badger out of its hole. He hears the signal and gets out. The honeyman leads him to the bees' nest. It will fly a little forward and wait for the ratel. Then it flies further. Leads to a bee's nest and hides in a tree.
The badger destroys the bee's nest, eats the honey and the baby, and the honey collector eats up the empty honeycombs. This amazing bird, it turns out, can feed on wax, which the stomachs of other animals cannot digest. Only the wax moth, the larvae of which live in bee honeycombs, challenges the honeyman for the honor of being a unique waxeater. A whole world of symbiotic bacteria and yeast has formed in the honey lover’s intestines. They decompose the wax, turning it into fatty acids, which are then absorbed by the bird’s body. Residents of some places where honey hunters live, following the instructions of the bird, extract honey from wild bees. Honey hunters lead people to their nests. “Wild bees are very willing to build their nests in baobab hollows.
When a honeyguide bird finds such a nest, it emits a jubilant cry. Africans, honey collectors, respond to this call. This seemingly incredible collaboration between humans and birds apparently arose because honeyguide birds first called out honeyeater birds with their calls. Obviously, people, in their opinion, have the right to this. When the Africans arrive at the place, the bird falls silent.
Africans always leave honeycombs as a share of the spoils for the honeyguide bird. As soon as people move about fifty meters away, the bird flies in to take advantage of its prey. First, she eats the larvae, and then gets to work on the honeycombs" (Bernhard Grzimek). At least two types of honeykeepers are engaged in such activities. And in total there are 17 of them: 15 - in Africa, south of the Sahara, 2 - in India (on the slopes of the Himalayas ), in Indochina and on some islands of Indonesia.
Apparently, all honeyguides, like cuckoos, do not incubate eggs. They are thrown into the nests of various birds: woodpeckers and other brothers in the order, hoopoes, orioles, shrikes, kingfishers... Honeyeater chicks kill half-brothers and sisters or pierce the eggs with a sharp egg tooth. Some even have two such “teeth” at the end of the beak. They are directed downward and form deadly forceps with the tip of the mandible. After a week, the egg teeth fall off, and the honey hunters can no longer kill. But perhaps those chicks that were not dealt with in time are being pushed out of the nest. Usually one, rarely two, of these “cuckoo chicks” sit in an occupied nest for about four weeks and feed on the offerings of their adoptive parents.
Why does a toucan have such a nose? The beak of toucans has surpassed all imaginable norms! Huge compared to birds: some have longer bodies (except for the tail). Orange, red, yellow-black, green, often multi-colored. Up to five different tones in its color! Thick, but light, not massive. Serrated along the cutting edge. Very impressive beak! Why is he such a toucan?
At one time it was assumed that with its grandiose beak the toucan, hiding in a hollow, defends the entrance to it. It later turned out that although he could have successfully followed such advice, he did not. When there is danger, it flies out of the hollow. Of course, the large beak is very helpful in picking fruits from thin branches, while the toucan itself sits on a fairly thick branch, which still holds it and does not break. But a long thin beak would be suitable for this. The excessive thickness of the “nose” even gets in the way here, and its brightly colored decoration is completely useless. Therefore, it is believed that the beak of a toucan is most likely a signal sign that helps birds find and recognize each other more easily. Or a sexual stimulus, like a peacock's tail. In the everyday, so to speak, relationships of toucans, the beak plays an important role. They often drum on bitches with their beaks, producing sounds that attract partners. Or they fence with them while playing. They “hug”, clasping each other’s beaks. They throw berries around: one throws them, the second catches them with their beak.
The thick beak is also suitable as a weapon. When attacking the nests of neighbors, toucans boldly use their “noses”: their impressive dimensions and bright, often black and orange (warning, like a wasp) coloring frighten even small birds of prey, and they shamefully leave their nests. Toucans hastily swallow eggs or chicks and fly away. In flight, the bulky beak is safe: here the toucans are usually attacked by the birds robbed by it.
This beak is suitable for “bagging” a small snake, lizard or spider, catching winged termites when they swarm, or snatching fish out of the water and, of course, for eating fruits and berries - the main food of toucans.
But the magnificent beak is unsuitable for chiseling wood, even rotten ones, although some toucans try to do this. Therefore, having driven out the owners, they have to occupy woodpecker hollows and various natural cavities in the trunks, expanding the entrance, if necessary. The eggs hatch directly on wood dust. In old hollows, occupied by toucans from year to year, a litter of undigested seeds is formed, which, apparently, they regurgitate here specifically for this purpose.
Toucan chicks are naked, red-skinned, and blind. Eyes open very late - after three weeks! They also grow feathers slowly - the menstruation has not yet fully fledged. They have heel calluses on their feet, protection, so to speak, from “bedsores.” After all, hollows sit on a hard tree for a long time, about two months.
Large toucans are poor flyers and are reluctant to take to the air. They flap their wings, and then glide while descending (apparently, the beak pulls down; although it is relatively light, it is still too large, “sails”). The flight of toucans is wavy. They prefer to jump in the branches. Cheerful birds: they often play with each other, jump, knock on branches with their beaks and, bowing their heads, listen to their “music”. They bathe with noise and screams in the forks of thick branches, where rainwater collects. Curious, one might say, even mischievous, the birds are friendly among themselves, they do not abandon wounded relatives, but all together, like crows, attack the enemy. Yellow-billed toucans in the evenings, before going to bed, start duet “chants” on the same tree of their choice. However, their wild cries can hardly be called singing. Having sat down tete-a-tete and raising their grotesque beaks to the sky, strangely, not like a bird, they shout: “Hee-knook! Hee-knook*!” The shrill cries of other toucans are more like the croaking of frogs, like the yelps of a puppy.
Arassari toucans spend the night in hollows in groups of five or six birds. They sleep like this: the bulky beak is laid on the back, and the tail is thrown up and forward, over the beak: “The last bird squeezes itself into such a room backwards, with its tail laid on its back.”
In many Arassari, males are colored differently than females: the head, chest, and neck are black (in females they are chestnut or dark gray). True toucans are usually jet black, with dazzling orange, yellow or white spots on the throat and chest, and on the rump. The undertail is red. The bare skin on the “face” around the eyes is orange, blue, green, yellow. The eyes are usually blue. Forty species of toucans (11 of them are true, genus Ramfastus) are found in Central and South America.
Literature: Akimushkin I.I. Animal World (Bird Tales)/Eureka Series; Artists A. Bloch, B. Zhutovsky - Moscow: Young Guard - 1971, p. 384
