many ways to earn their living birds of prey.Among them are representatives, feed exclusively on dead animals.It carrion birds, which are their common, similarities.
Features
These birds pose a serious competition hyenas feeding on carrion.Prominent representatives are the vulture, vulture, griffon vulture, the bearded vulture.Distributed mainly in Africa and Eurasia.In America there are the condor, the American black vulture and katarta.Some of these birds are predators initially, but eventually moved to consumption fell.
All birds scavenging is characterized by high adaptability to long-distance flights, during which they are currently searching for the bodies of large animals.Begin eating they tend to internal organs.It is this fact, scientists explain the lack of feathers on the neck of most of these birds.When the birds carrion hatch inside the carcass of an animal, the naked neck does not allow it to accumulate in the food residues.With such a diet poisoning is excluded, ie. A. The stomach of these birds is capable of producing a substance neutralizing cadaverous poison.Claws scavengers in the evolution weakened, so hunt live prey with them is impossible.
Lifestyle
Birds of prey carrion rarely found alone.In search of food they usually soar together above the ground, and to find prey, gather around her whole flock.Different they approach the food.The bearded man will long to circle the prey, slowly sinking at some distance from it.Hesitated, she begins to move it slowly.Grief Urubu, on the contrary, can fall to almost Primechenie dominant carcass.
Many scavengers adapted to monitor the behavior of their compatriots or hyenas, hoping that they will sooner or later lead them to prey.
Some representatives of these birds prefer to eat completely decomposed corpses of animals, while others are looking for fresher meat.They differ by the process and food intake.For example, the vulture does not touch the skeleton and skin, eating only the inner part.Bearded Vulture feeds mainly on bones, having quite fit for this stomach.Therefore, on one corpse may be fed at the same time several different kinds of scavengers, without interfering with each other.
Grief
large birds, whose wingspan is about three meters, and weight - from 7 to 13 kg.Adults have a dark brown color.Almost naked neck bordered lightish long feathers.These birds are scavengers frequently nest in the foothills have a permanent couple.Nest create a huge, capable of supporting two adults.
have neck is very developed sense of smell, so he often fell sniffing smells, sitting on a tree branch, or flying in very low to the ground.Birds are very clean and takes water treatments after each meal.It does this not only for pleasure, but in order to carry out disinfection of its tail after a meal.
vultures feed on carcasses of mostly animals that were killed by hunters or fallen from natural causes.In search of food, these birds are capable of overcoming great distances and detect prey from a height of one and a half kilometers.
Griffon vulture
very similar to these birds black vultures, scavengers.It got its name for the stand-out white spot head.As in the neck on the neck has a collar made of long feathers.The body color is brown, but the black wings and tail.It lives mainly in the mountains of Central Asia, in the south of Europe, in India.Griffons nest in groups of 3-5 pairs, sometimes entire colonies numbering more than a dozen pairs of these birds.Laying alternately incubated by both parents, this period lasts 53 days.
In early May, the chicks appear, who start their own not fly until August.After the departure of parents for about three months, feed their brood.
Buzzard
The name of these birds are received for that feed on the remains of dead animals.In the olden days the word "bitch" means "carrion."Appearance vultures does not cause fear - small-largest poultry weighing less than 2 kg, with a lean physique and thin beak.Plumage depends on the species.There are only two - common vulture and brown.The first covered with feathers and even the color has something resembling a mohawk.Key habitats - Africa, Europe, Canary Islands.It is found in Russia.Brown vulture has more similarity with vultures - the same bare neck and head.Found in South Africa, on the Mediterranean coast, in the Caucasus.The body of adult birds covered with white feathers, wings and flight feathers are completely black.
These birds carrion using a palette of different sounds to communicate with each other.The thin beak they are not able to crush the skulls and bones of large animals, so the diet is the main bodies of rodents, lizards, snakes and birds.During nesting female lays only two eggs.Appeared 42 days the chicks are exposed to various dangers of attacking eagles, foxes, owls and wolves.
In ancient times among the indigenous peoples of North America vulture was considered a sacred bird.In Europe, by contrast, fell for eating them is always treated with disdain.
Bearded
This is another large bird of the hawk Carrion.The wingspan is 260-280 cm and weight - up to 7 kg.Borodach easy to distinguish - its outstanding long narrow wings and a tail.The back is covered with gray feathers, and the neck and abdomen almost white.At the bottom of the beak of a few black feathers form a beam-like beard, for which he received the bird its name.
Breeds bearded middle and high mountain belts on hard rocks.The same socket pair used more than one year.In January lay eggs.In laying no more than two eggs, but the chick grows always alone.Already in June, starting to fly, it is up to the fall still holds close to his parents.
stomach bearded able to easily digest the bones of animals.They make up the bulk of its diet.
carrion birds, photo of eating foods that are not always pleasant, are real nurses.They clean the area from the corpses of dead animals and thus bring huge benefits.Currently, there is reduction in the number of these birds, which is associated with reduced food supply, poaching.Many species have already been made today in the International Red Book.
