steppe zone, the part of it where settle locusts, populated by beautiful birds - pink starlings.The closest relative of a pink starling - ordinary Shpak.Appearance this bird resembles rather a crow, starling than usual.In Shpak and pink starling similar size, flight and some habits.And in color these families have nothing in common.
Description pink starling
Plumage, covering the head and neck, painted in black color scheme with a dark purple metallic sheen.Black feathers in the wings and tail gleaming greenish-purple hues.The remaining feathers are painted in delicate pale pink tone.Young pink starlings covered with brown plumage.Painting of the feet - a reddish-brown.The colors of the male brighter than the females.
pink beaks of these birds are much thicker than that of ordinary starlings.The head is decorated with a cute original feathered black crest formed by long feathers.The males flaunt more pronounced crest than female woodcocks.
Behavioral features pink starling
It just so happened that the pastor - the social bird, slipping into a giant strong pack.See vysokoobschestvennoe creation alone is practically impossible.Unique birds hold a huge community.The birds gather in flocks of tens and often hundreds.Flocks are united in gigantic colonies, including tens of thousands of couples without young generation.
birds are flying quite fast.They often flap their wings rapidly swept over the land.In flight, the birds follow each other.Climb into the sky looks like a flock of dark solid com.After landing, the birds immediately scattered, still running, and flew in the same direction.The result is that the whole flock moves in one direction.
area of ​​distribution
Throughout the winter the birds fly, looking for food in the desert regions that spread over Iraq, Iran, India and Afghanistan.In spring, they migrate to the south-east Europe and the lands of Central Asia.Living south of the Caucasus and Siberia.
Features nesting
For gnezdovok bird pastor chooses a vacant space next to the water.Its allure steppe, desert and semi-desert plains, rich fodder teeming with cliffs and rocks with crevices, steep coasts with little cover, cracked, buildings with niches.In this secluded, inaccessible to predators towns birds make their nests.
Shpak - relative pink starling nest it quite differently.He needs to find a pair of early spring, build a nest, lay their eggs and raise offspring.Relatives of the same with pink coloration in no hurry to nest.Their colonies are deposited, when in place gnezdovok accumulate an abundance of food.The larvae of the locusts and grasshoppers grow by mid-summer.
nests of starlings
pink starlings build their nests in the clefts of the rock cliffs and ruins, among the rocks, in burrows built swallows, in cracks in the cliffs.In the steppes of the nest are settling in the recesses of the earth.
Bird's Nest form of a thin layer of dry stalks of plants.Careless layer of stems covered wormwood leaves, feathers dropped by steppe birds.In finished form the nest like a massive shallow bowls.Top slot barely hide behind the sparse grass or pebbles.
On the territory of 25 m2 pink starlings manage to accommodate up to 20 sockets.Nests are crowded one next to the other, sometimes touching the walls.On the part at first glance it seems that this is just a chaotic pile of garbage.With such a careless construction of masonry falls prey to the voracious locusts.
pale gray eggs in the nests appear in May.In the full clutch of eggs is 4-7.The chicks, which appeared after 5 weeks in an atmosphere of complete confusion and crowding, are the common heritage of all adults.Couples who have lost offspring to the fault of locusts, painless loss experience, vykarmlivaya foreign chicks.
Grown fledglings do not avoid adult counterparts.They are willing to take possession of any food to be near the birds.Adult birds in the realm of incessant bustle and confusion of indiscriminately handing out food, to satisfy his hunger and his young neighbor.
Features hunting
hunt birds in an original way.A huge cloud of bird landed in the hunting grounds, organized built into the dense ranks.Birds are moving in the same direction, keeping a distance of 10 centimeters.They are on the run from snatching grass grasshoppers and locusts.
Each bird swallowed his occupation so that it can not interfere with the hunt neighbors.During coordinated hunting none starling is not for nothing.It's not just gorge on to satiety, but also feed their offspring to satiety.
Progeny colony grows together.Six weeks later young departs from secluded nests.As soon as the chicks grow stronger and leave the nest, the colony will act from their homes, fall apart into separate flocks and begin to lead a nomadic life.
Food Chain pink starlings
Rosy starling can be called a great traveler, and experienced a gregarious nomad drifter.These terms come to a point when it comes from the family of feathered starling.Roaming birds are forced, because the supply chain is based on the rosy starlings key insects - locusts.
Starlings chasing locusts, inevitably wander.Eating locusts profitable.Harmful insects are not adapted to living alone.Locusts move huge amounts.Therefore, the starlings - not just a gregarious creatures, like other birds.They collectively create a living year-round in hard packs.
adult individuals for a day requires 200 grams of high-grade feed.The colony, numbering ten thousand pairs burdened offspring, a month consumes about 108 tonnes of locusts.To feed, huge colonies of nesting settle in places that are filled with locusts and other insects Orthoptera.
Catching grasshoppers, bird breaks her legs and wings, hitting the insect on the ground and deftly wielding beak.By breaking down the victim to pieces, she starts to swallow them.With an abundance of locusts birds not only eat insects, but simply maim and kill.
limited supply circuit pink starlings makes them chasing insects, making it impossible to own their homes, in which they would be returned to winter quarters.Biology of birds tied to nutrition locust and other Orthoptera.Birds appear only where there are locusts.If any place it is not enough, pastor in search of food capable of making huge hops.
However, locusts and Orthoptera - not only food pink starlings.They are happy to regale berries, weed seeds and rice.Birds can cause considerable damage in cherry and cherry orchards, vineyards and rice plantations.In addition, starlings feed on beetles, lepidoptera, spiders and ants.
harmful or helpful
During ripening berries tramp-starlings turn into a disaster for gardeners.Therefore, the question arises of whether we should reduce the number of pink starling, characterized by excessive voracity.It compensates for any benefit brought by the destruction of pests during their mass development delivered by crop damage in the gardens?
To answer this question, we should make some simple calculations.In captivity, the bird is able to eat up to 300 insect pests.The colony of fifteen thousand pairs during the day will destroy about one million malicious creatures.
Besides pink starlings settle huge colonies only where the pests multiply massively.This feathered know in advance the danger that people are able to notice only when it becomes evident.If we consider that the locusts destroy everything without regret, starlings are a real salvation for harvest.The harm birds on disaster delivered locust simply pales.
