Normal body temperature in birds +41 ° C.To keep the heat in the blood, the little creatures need to eat hard.But if the summer and autumn, a lot of food, the winter, especially in our latitudes - time ordeal.The easiest way to urban birds.Pigeons, sparrows, crows and jackdaws always find sustenance near human habitation.There, under the eaves of houses, attics and heating plants, they are saved from the cold.But what do the birds winter in the woods or waters?
migratory, nomadic and sedentary species
higher latitude areas, the more the birds are leaving these regions for the winter.In the tundra, except for the polar partridge, almost no one is.Long before the cold weather, ponds and rivers is not delayed by ice, stretching to the south shoals of geese, swans and other waterfowl.Fly and insectivorous birds.So, in the suburbs of the 300 species that live there in the summer, in winter there are only 50. But the lower the latitude, the more common resident birds.For example, thrush in Russia is a migratory species, and in Ukraine he did not leave their homes.Nomadic birds - a special type.They feel, what will stand the winter, and, on this basis, migrate or stay.Such species include waxwings, nutcracker, some species of tits, tap dancing, jays, bullfinches and others.In fact, as birds preparing for winter,
Forest birds
the winter particularly affected inhabitants thickets.Moths and beetles hiding or killed, grain hid the dense layer of snow, do not catch a fish from under the ice, frogs and small rodents went into hibernation.That matched the forest Ptakha to human habitation.Especially a lot of them in the winter near the houses and in the villages: in the gardens still swaying in the branches of dry berries in the garden, too, can profit.For Birdie fly predators: eagles, owls, hawks.
sedentary species know what to expect, so do stocks.As birds preparing for winter? example, carpets the woodpecker hollow twigs and moss.This insulation allows him to sit out the coldest nights.Some birds at other times of the year live separately or in pairs, get off the winter in large flocks, sometimes consisting of several species.It is easier to find food and, more importantly, keep warm, huddling together.In the autumn, before the onset of cold weather, many birds are fed intensively, accumulating fat reserves.However, with the rapid metabolism it saves them a little.But autumn moult, after which the body is covered with thick down Birdie, protects it from the cold better.
Birds' nest egg »
Anticipating hungry time, certain types of food are reserved for future use.Maybe you've noticed how the birds preparing for winter: jays bury acorns and nuts in moss and grass, nuthatches grain limes and other food at high altitude are driving under the bark of trees.And the birds of prey, in the autumn of killing rodents, do not eat them all.Some corpses are hidden in a hollow tree, just a hungry time.
Birds optimists
But there are species that transcend frost.While the birds are preparing for winter, going to fly south or making stocks ... they build their nests.It crossbills.January (the coldest month) - their time.In the fierce cold, they deduce chicks.Because mature cones, the main sustenance crossbills.Its curved, like a parrot's beak, they get pine and pine nuts.Also good feeling in the winter forest grouse, it feeds on pine needles.Many food and grouse, grouse.They eat the berries of juniper, alder catkins.
